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9 

Chapman 

A  Californian  in  South  America. 


A  Californian  in  South  America 


A  REPORT  ON  THE  VISIT  OF  PROFESSOR  CHARLES 
EDWARD  CHAPMAN  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALI- 
FORNIA TO  SOUTH  AMERICA  UPON  THE  OCCASION 
OF  THE  AMERICAN  CONGRESS  OF  BIBLIOGRAPHY 
AND  HISTORY  HELD  AT  BUENOS  AIRES  IN  JULY, 
1916,  IN  COMMEMORATION  OF  THE  DECLARATION 
OF  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC 
JULY  9,  1816. 


{J^:^0^  r**\*-i^ 


C^pia.yJk4)  :€  r  C-i^^tU-^-^^**-*^- 


Published  by  Lederer,  Street  &  Zeus  Co. 

2161  Center  Street,  Berkeley,  California 

1917 


A  Californian  in  South  America 


REPORT  ON  THE  VISIT  OF  PROFESSOR  CHARLES 
EDWARD  CHAPMAN  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALI- 
FORNIA TO  SOUTH  AMERICA  UPON  THE  OCCASION 
OF  THE  AMERICAN  CONGRESS  OF  BIBLIOGRAPHY 
AND  HISTORY  HELD  AT  BUENOS  AIRES  IN  JULY, 
1916,  IN  COMMEMORATION  OF  THE  DECLARATION 
OF  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC, 
JULY  9,  1816. 


In  order  that  a  report  on  the  representation  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  CaHfornia  by  Professor  Charles  Edward  Chapman 
at  the  American  Congress  of  BibHography  and  Historv,  held  at 
Buenos  Aires  in  191 6,  may  be  fittingly  presented,  I  have  asked 
Mr.  Herbert  I.  Priestley  to  prepare  the  following  official  account 
of  Professor  Chapman's  visit  to  South  America. 

Henry  Morse  Stephens. 


46^ 


UBRART 

tJNIVERSTTY  OF  CALTFORNIA 
SANTA  BABBAIU 


a 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  Argentine  Declaration  of  Independence  from  Spain 
was  proclaimed  July  9,  1816.  To  commemorate  the  event,  a 
series  of  centennial  celebrations,  both  popular  and  intellectual, 
was  held  in  Buenos  Aires  during-  July,  1916.  Among  the 
series  was  the  American  Congress  of  Bibliography  and  His- 
tory, to  which  the  University  of  California  was,  in  September, 
191 5,  invited  to  send  a  delegate.  The  President  of  the  Uni- 
versity, Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  in  consultation  with  Henry 
Morse  Stephens,  Head  of  History,  appointed  Professor  Charles 
Edward  Chapman  to  represent  the  University  at  the  Congress. 

The  choice  was  logical,  inasmuch  as  Dr.  Chapman  had 
been  for  eight  years  identified  with  study  of  the  history  of 
Spain  and  Spanish  America  in  this  University,  and  was  at 
the  time  assistant  professor  of  those  subjects.  It  had,  fur- 
thermore, been  demonstrated  during  Dr.  Chapman's  residence 
in  Spain  for  two  years  as  Traveling  Fellow  of  the  Native 
Sons  of  the  Golden  West,  that  he  could  represent  California 
with  dignity  and  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  thought 
and  temperament  of  Spanish  speaking  peoples.  "Muy  sim- 
pdtico"  is  the  term,  devoid  of  tinge  of  insincerity,  which  "Don 
Carlos"  wins  at  once  in  his  dealings  with  Spanish  speaking 
peoples.  His  experiences  and  his  reception  on  the  island  of 
Majorca  in  1914,  upon  the  occasion  of  the  unveiling  of  a 
statue  to  Junipero  Serra,  the  Majorcan  apostle  of  California, 
show  that  his  presence  there  as  representative  of  the  University 
and  the  State  contributed  special  significance  to  the  cordial 
relations  between  Spaniards  and  Californians.  Chapman's  facile 
use  of  Castilian  and  his  knowledge  of  Spanish  manners  and 
customs  served  to  make  his  delegation  successful  where  men 
with  lack  of  that  insight  have  failed.  His  visit  to  South 
America  will  be  productive  of  increased  sympathy  and  under- 
standing between  the  people  of  Argentina  and  the  United 
States,  that  being  the  purpose  of  the  establishment  of  the 
Latin-American  Review,  for  which  Chapman  made  himself 
such  a  zealous  propagandist  upon  his  return  to  the  United 
States. 

It  is  to  serve  as  a  responsible  record  of  that  visit,  and 
to  preserve  in  collected  form  the  documentary  histor}^  of  Cali- 


4  A  Californian  in  South  America 

fomia's  participation  in  the  international  celebrations  at  Buenos 
Aires  that  this  report  is  issued. 

Professor  Chapman  left  Berkeley  early  in  May,  1916, 
and  sailed  from  New  York  on  June  3.  The  southward  voyage 
was  broken  by  brief  stops  at  Bahia,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  Monte- 
video. Buenos  Aires  was  reached  June  25.  Attendance  upon 
the  Congress  and  visits  to  Tigre'  and  La  Plata  occupied  the 
time  until  July  31.  On  August  i,  a  railway  journey  termi- 
nated at  Santiago  de  Chile,  where  Chapman  remained  until 
August  10.  His  visit  in  Santiago  was  made  pleasant  by  a  meet- 
ing with  the  distinguished  bibliographer,  Don  Jose  Toribio 
Medina  and  the  eminent  historian,  now  president  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chile,  Senor  Amunategui  Solar. 

Valparaiso  was  visited  from  August  10  to  12,  after  which 
the  slow  coasting  steamer  Maipo  was  taken  for  Callao.  Stops 
were  made  at  Coquimbo,  the  chief  naval  port  of  Chile,  at 
Huasco,  Carrizal,  Caldera,  Chanaral,  Taltal,  Antofagasta  (the 
busiest  port  in  Chile,  through  which  is  had  its  principal  con- 
nection with  Bolivia),  Gatico,  Tocopilla,  the  great  nitrate  port 
of  Iquique,  Caleta  Buena,  Pisagua,  and  Arica.  These  are  all 
Chilean  ports,  their  chief  business  being  derived  from  the 
copper  mines  of  the  interior  mountains. 

This  coasting  voyage  was  devoid  of  incident  save  upon 
the  occasion  when,  as  the  vessel  was  leaving  Caldera,  a  piston- 
head  broke,  entailing  a  delay  of  nine  days.  The  indefatigable 
voyager  utilized  this  enforced  delay  by  beginning  work  upon 
his  forthcoming  history  of  Spain,  for  which  he  had  accessible 
certain  materials. 

From  Callao  to  Lima  by  the  five-mile  railway  on  Sep- 
tember I.  Here  Chapman  remained  until  October  26.  The 
intensely  hospitable  nature  of  the  South  Americans  made  it 
impossible  to  work,  if  once  it  was  known  that  the  Californian 
had  arrived ;  hence  it  was  necessary  to  remain  incognito  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  the  visit  to  the  City  of  the  Kings. 
Material  was  gathered  for  study  of  the  relations  between  the 
United  States  and  Latin  America,  and  chapters  were  added 
to  the  projected  text  of  Spanish  history.  The  incognito  pre- 
served in  a  Peruvian  pension    was  broken  just  at  the  close  of 


Introduction  5 

the  visit  by  meetings  with  the  Seiiores  Don  Carlos  Weisse  and 
Don    Carlos    Romero,    Peruvian    historians. 

From  Lima  the  homeward  stretch  was  enlivened  by  stops 
at  Salaverry  and  Payta  (home  of  the  genuine  "Panama"  hat), 
Panama,  Colon,  and  Havana ;  northward,  to  Boston,  the  "home 
port,"  the  journey  from  Key  West  was  made  by  rail,  via 
St.  Augustine,  Jacksonville,  Richmond,  Washington,  and  New 
York. 

On  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  Professor  Chapman  devoted 
his  energies  to  the  propaganda  for  a  Latin-American  Historical 
Review,  of  which  further  notice  appears  in  subsequent  pages 
of  this  report.  There,  also,  were  composed  the  article  on 
the  South  American  archives  and  the  speech  at  Cincinnati, 
which  also  appear  on  subsequent  pages. 

It  is  of  passing  interest  to  note  that  this  journey  of  Dr. 
Chapman's,  in  connection  with  his  previous  journeys,  has 
brought  him  into  direct  touch  with  the  peoples  of  thirty  na- 
tionalities of  the  Americas,  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  On 
his  return  trip  to  California  he  at  last  gratified  a  long  cherished 
ambition  to  set  foot  in  the  only  remaining  unvisited  state  of 
the  Union — Arkansas. 

The  welcome  accorded  to  Dr.  Chapman  in  Buenos  Aires 
and  other  South  American  cities  where  he  represented  the 
University  of  California  was,  both  in  point  of  personal  atten- 
tions and  in  the  reception  given  to  the  ideas  which  he  sug- 
gested concerning  future  relations  between  the  learned  groups 
of  the  two  continents,  attestation  of  the  fact  that  his  errand 
was  timely  and  propitious,  and  that  it  was  executed  with  tact 
and  taste.  In  subsequent  pages  more  specific  attention  will  be 
given  to  this  phase  of  the  journey;  it  is  pertinent  to  notice 
here,  nevertheless,  some  of  the  distinctive  honors  which  were 
conferred  upon  him  by  his  Latin-American  confreres.  Dr. 
Chapman  was  made  honorary  president  of  one  of  the  sessions 
of  the  Congress,  an  honor  accorded  only  to  national  delegates 
and  to  him ;  he  was  also  made  a  member  of  the  permanent 
Council  of  the  Congress  and  of  the  Bibliographical  Institute 
in  the  character  of  suplente  or  supernumerary.  The  active 
membership    was    appointed    exclusively    from    among    scholars 


6  A  Californian  in  South  America 

living  in  or  near  Buenos  Aires,  and  only  four  persons  shared 
with  him  the  honor  of  being  named  a  suplente. 

The  documents  which  form  the  body  of  this  report  are, 
with  their  brief  prefatory  notes,  self-explanatory,  and  it  is 
unnecessary  to  comment  upon  any  of  them  at  length. 

Herbert  Ingram   Priestley. 
Berkeley,  April,  191 7. 


DOCUMENT  I. 

Opening    Address    at    the    Formal    Inauguration    of   the 

American  Congress  of  Bibliography  and 

History  at  Buenos  Aires, 

This  meeting  was  opened  by  the  Argentine  Minister  o£  the  Interior. 
The  address  was  delivered  by  Dr.  Chapman  in  Spanish.  It  will  be 
published  in  Spanish  in  the  volume  which  will  record  the  acts  and 
proceedings  of  the  Congress. 

Most    Excellent    Minister,     Mr.     President,     Fellow-Delegates, 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

I  desire,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  name  of  California,  whose 
University  I  represent  on  this  occasion,  to  fehcitate  the  Argen- 
tine RepubHc  upon  having  completed,  with  such  happy  fortune, 
one  hundred  years  since  the  Declaration  of  her  Independence. 
Well  may  you  felicitate  yourselves,  for  the  history  of  the  world 
does  not  record  a  more  stupendous  advance  than  that  which 
Argentina  has  made  since  those  memorable  years  when,  under 
Liniers,  she  repulsed  the  attacks  of  a  foreign  power  which 
was  trying  to  take  possession  of  her.  Then,  for  the  first  time, 
Argentina  was  revealed  to  herself,  and  it  was  a  matter  of  a  few 
years  for  a  Belgrano,  a  San  Martin,  and  other  illustrious  gen- 
erals, to  assure  the  independence  of  the  country.  It  is  difficult 
for  me,  a  historian  by  profession,  to  leap  from  that  moment  to 
the  present,  without  reminding  you  of  the  great  men,  well 
known  though  they  be,  who  contributed,  by  their  fervent 
patriotism  and  warlike  valor,  to  the  growth  of  this  powerful 
Republic,  whose  greatest  blasonry  finds  itself  represented  in 
this  magnificent  city  of  today. 

Argentina's  mighty  forward  advance  along  the  highway  of 
progress  is  indisputably  the  determining  cause  why  this  Re- 
public, which,  a  hundred  years  ago,  possessed  little  more  than 
the  potential  wealth  of  its  soil  and  the  valor  of  its  men,  may 
today  preside  over  an  intellectual  Congress,  whose  results  may 
be   of   transcendent   importance    for  the   entire   world. 

Nobody  will  deny  that  the  object  of  the  intellectual  world 
is  to  seek  for  the  truth.  But  I  believe  that  the  truth,  once 
found  and  demonstrated,  will  permit  the  world  in  some  com- 
ing, though  distant,  century,  to  live  even  in  a  kind  of  brother- 


8  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

hood.  When  the  intellect  shall  be  able  to  dominate  egotism 
and  the  emotions,  or  rather  direct  them  by  secure  ways,  then 
it  will  be  possible  to  say  that  civilization  has  arrived  at  the 
age  of  manhood,  after  a  stormy  youth.  Every  century  marks 
an  advance  toward  that  ideal,  and,  though  we  may  never 
achieve  it,  it  is  worth  while  to  seek  it,  in  order  to  approach 
it  as  nearly  as  possible. 

One  of  the  truths  which  is  most  worth  while  to  learn,  is 
the  truth  in  regard  to  neighboring,  though  foreign,  peoples. 
The  Americas  ought  to  know  one  another  more  and  better 
than  they  have  heretofore.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  assure 
you  that  w^e  in  North  America^  are  seeking,  at  the  present 
time,  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  you.  This  is  evident,  not 
only  in  our  extraordinary  development  of  the  study  of  the 
Spanish  language,  but  also  in  many  other  ways.  The  most 
interesting  of  this  order  is  the  great  impulse  there  toward  the 
study  of  the  Latin  American  countries.  A  few  years  ago, 
not  many  universities  had  such  courses  in  their  curriculums. 
Today  those  which  do  are  numerous,  and  there  are  others 
which  are  only  waiting  to  find  an  authoritative  teacher  of  that 
subject  matter.  In  order  that  you  may  better  understand  this, 
I  ought  to  remind  you  that  there  are  more  than  a  hundred 
universities^  in  the  United  States,  without  mentioning  many 
others  of  lesser  grade,  and  that  university  education  is  almost 
general.  By  way  of  illustration,  I  beg  permission  to  submit 
for  your  consideration  some  data  about  my  own  University, 
that  of  the  greatest  fame,  in  territory  formerly  Spanish,  of  the 
universities  of  North  America — the  University  of  California. 
During  the  almost  twenty  years  of  the  presidency  of  Dr. 
Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  the  University  of  California  has  grown 
to  such  a  point  that,  last  year,  there  were  more  than  ten  thou- 
sand students  there,  with  some  eight  hundred  professors,^  with 
courses  in  all  the  branches  of  human  knowledge.  Among 
these  are  courses  in  Latin  American  studies.  In  the  History 
Department,  presided   over  by   the  notable  historian.    Professor 

^The  United   States  is  habitually  referred  to  as   North  America. 
^The  word  "universities"  is  used  to  include  "colleges,"  since  that  is 
the  Argentine  acceptance  of  the  word. 


opening  Address  9 

H.  Morse  Stephens,  ex-president  of  the  American  Historical 
Association,  there  are  ten  professors,  of  whom  four  teach 
material  relative  to  Latin  America.  Among  these  there  stands 
out  Professor  Bolton,  one  of  the  great  historians,  in  my 
opinion,  of  the  United  States.  Furthermore,  there  are  other 
professors  in  other  departments  who  teach  closely  related  ma- 
terial on  Latin  America,  as  for  example  in  the  departments 
of  Political  Science  and  Economics.  Probably  we  are  some- 
what more  advanced  in  Latin  American  studies  than  the  ma- 
jority of  the  other  universities.  Nevertheless,  it  is  the  tend- 
ency of  the  day,  everywhere,  to  devote  more  and  more  at- 
tention to  the  study  of  the  countries  to  the  south  of  our  own. 

As  for  the  means  of  bringing  about  a  more  efifective  de- 
velopment of  our  knowledge  of  one  another,  three  methods 
occur  to  me.  The  first,  at  the  same  time  the  most  important 
and  the  most  urgent,  would  be  the  founding  of  a  quarterly 
bibliographical  review,  concerning  history,  political  science,  and 
economics,  with  reference  to  Latin  America.  I  can  promise 
you  the  cordial  co-operation  of  the  universities  and  intellectual 
societies  of  the  United  States  for  this  review.  In  the  second 
and  third  places  I  suggest  respectively  the  idea  of  an  inter- 
change of  professors  and  students  between  the  Americas,  which 
would  greatly  conduce,  I  believe,  to  a  better  mutual  under- 
standing. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  should  like  to  have  more  time 
to  tell  you  of  what  we  wish  to  learn  from  you,  of  how  we 
desire  to  assimilate  those  fine  intuitions  and  that  good  taste 
which  you  inherited  with  your  Latin  blood !  How  I  would 
rejoice  to  express  myself  to  the  full  about  the  very  favourable 
impression  created  by  Argentina's  representation  at  our  Panama- 
Pacific  Exposition !  At  any  rate,  I  can  do  no  less  than  tell 
you  that  Argentina  was  very  fortunate  in  the  selection  of  the 
men  in  charge  of  her  representation,  not  only  in  that  of  Senor 
Anasagasti  and  the  two  Senores  Nelson,  whom  I  had  the  good 
fortune  to  know,  but  also  in  that  of  the  other  representatives, 
with   whom   I   was  not  so   fortunate  as  to  become   acquainted ! 

^The    word    "professors"    is    used    to    include    any     member     of     the 
teaching  staff,  that  being  the  use  of  the  word  in  Argentina. 


10  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

Would  that  I  could  explain  to  you  how  sincerely  we  desire 
your  cordial  friendship !  But  I  have  already  abused  your  at- 
tention a  considerable  time,  and  I  end  with  the  desire  that 
the  good  results  which  are  to  be  expected  from  this  Congress, 
in  consequence  of  the  well  meditated  preparations  of  the 
executive  committee,  may  be  fruitful  for  the  good  of  humanity, 
and  thanking  you  warmly  for  the  kindness  with  which  you 
have  listened  to  the  words  of  this  sincere  partisan,  the  same 
as  all  of  you,  of  the  brotherhood  of  the  American  countries. 
That  is  all. 


DOCUMENT  II. 
Resolutions  Prepared  by  the  Delegate  From  the  Univer- 
sity   OF    California    for    the    American    Congress 
OF  Bibliography  and  History  at  Buenos  Aires, 
AND  Their  Reception   by  the  Congress. 


Resolutions. 

1.  That  a  Latin  American 
review  of  a  bibliographical  na- 
ture should  be  established; 

That  its  scope  should  be 
limited  to  history  and  kindred 
subjects,  such  as  political 
science  and  economics. 

Failing  that,  that  it  be  lim- 
ited to  material  of  a  serious 
nature,  excluding  the  purely- 
diverting. 

2.  That  space  in  the  review, 
if  established,  be  set  aside  for 
descriptions  of  archives,  indi- 
cating the  principal  divisions  of 
documents  in  them,  their  state 
of  preservation,  the  means  fa- 
cilitated for  their  use,  and  any 
further  information  of  utility 
in  first  instance  to  the  investi- 
gator. 

3.  That,  in  hopes  of  a  great- 
er mutual  understanding  be- 
tween the  two  Americas,  the 
Congress  declare  itself  in  favor 
of  a  propoganda  for : 

An  interchange  of  professors 
between  the  universities  of 
North  America  (the  United 
States)   and  Latin  America. 

A  formal  interchange  of  stu- 
dents between  universities  of 
the  said  countries. 


Reception. 

The  principle  of  my  resolu- 
tion was  accepted,  but,  though 
I  was  the  first  to  present  it,  I 
cannot  claim  to  have  been  the 
only  one  who  came  to  the  Con- 
gress with  this  idea.  The  idea 
evolved  itself  into  the  founding 
of  the  Bibliographical  Institute 
with  its  review,  described 
below,  in  Document  V. 

The  resolution  about  archive 
descriptions  was  extended  to 
include  a  recommendation  that 
other  reviews,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  Institute,  should  pub- 
lish them,  and  the  words  "in 
first  instance"  were  omitted. 


This  resolution  was  amended 
so  as  to  read  "between  the 
countries  of  the  two  Ameri- 
cas" in  the  first  paragraph,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  second 
the  words  "and  between  the 
Latin  American  countries 
themselves"  were  added. 


12  A  Californian  in  South  America 

Dr.  Chapman's  second  resolution  gave  the  Congress  an 
impulse  toward  "the  document,"  and  thereafter  that  subject, 
always  referred  to  as  if  it  were  his  special  property,  became 
one  of  the  most  prominent  ideas  of  the  Congress.  For  an- 
other resolution  (introduced  by  Dr.  Sarmiento)  see  Docu- 
ment V. 


DOCUMENT  III. 

Latin  American  Traits. 

An  address  by  the  delegate  from  the  University  of  California  at 
the  banquet  of  the  American  Congress  of  Bibliography  and  Historj', 
at  the  close  of  the  business  sessions.  The  address  was  delivered  in 
Spanish,  and  was  published  in  Spanish  in  La  Republica,  La  Plata, 
Argentina,  July,  1916.  It  will  also  appear  in  the  memorial  volume  of 
the   Congress. 

More  fitting  would  it  have  been  for  my  distinguished 
fellow-countryman,  Dr.  Robertson,^  to  speak  in  my  place.  K 
hundred  times  more  learned  than  I,  he  has  become  one  of 
our  notable  historians,  seeking  the  history  of  South  America 
as  a  field  for  the  exercise  of  his  talents.  The  author  of  the 
life  of  Miranda,  a  work  which  shared  the  first  prize  with 
another  for  the  best  volume  of  history  in  the  year  of  its 
publication — such  a  learned  historian  would  be  able  to  speak 
with  a  vast  knowledge  of  your  own  history.  Nevertheless, 
with  the  permission  of  my  friend.  Dr.  Robertson,  I,  the  small- 
est star  in  our  constellation,  am  remaining  on  my  feet  to 
speak,  because  I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  know  the 
members  of  this  Congress  some  ten  days  longer  than  my 
friend. 

There  are  others  who  have  spoken  and  who  will  speak 
of  the  results  which  are  to  be  expected  from  this  Congress, 
chief  among  which  is,  perhaps,  the  very  important  founding 
of  the  American  Bibliographical  Institute.  But  since  I  am  a 
North  American,  I  have  thought  it  well  to  touch  another  string 
of  the  guitar,  and  tell  you  of  some  other  advantages  for  me, 
which  this  Congress  has  had — and  even  in  some  small  degree, 
as  you  will  see,  for  you. 

In  the  University  of  California  I   have  the  good   fortune 

^Dr.  Robertson  arrived  the  day  before  the  close  of  the  Congress 
as   representative   of   the  University   of    Illinois. 


Latin  American  Traits  13 

to  teach  the  history  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Latin  America. 
Each  year,  there  come  to  my  class  some  two  hundred  pupils 
who  take  for  gold,  that  which  many  times  is  far  from  being 
so — the  poor  words  which  I  speak  to  them.  Now,  I  am 
indeed  going  to  offer  them  gold !  In  this  Congress  I  have 
seen  many  intellectual  men  of  Latin  America  at  work.  Now 
I  can,  with  some  certainty,  depict  Latin  American  traits  for 
the  better  understanding  of  two  hundred  pupils,  who  will  be 
succeeded  by  another  two  hundred,  and  so  on  in  the  years 
to  come. 

What  am  I  going  to  say?  In  the  first  place  it  will  occur 
to  me  to  say  that  there  are  in  South  America  vast  material 
riches,  a  necessary  precursor  of  the  diffusion  of  culture,  and 
that  there  are  wealthy  and  at  the  same  time  cultivated  men 
who  devote  themselves  to  that  very  diffusion ;  that  in  South 
America  you  have  at  least  a  beginning  of  a  happy  marriage 
of  wealth  with  intellectuality.  For  an  example,  then,  of  whom 
shall  I  think  if  not  of  the  notable  initiator  of  this  Congress? 
Doctor  Nicanor  Sarmiento, — I  felicitate  myself  upon  having 
met  a  gentleman  who  combines  the  above-named  qualities  with 
a  complete  unselfishness  for  his  own  account.  For  you,  Doctor 
Sarmiento, — nothing  was  of  any  importance  except  the  success 
of  the  Congress.  Worthy  possessor  of  an  illustrious  name,-  I 
have  learned  from  you  some  Latin  traits. 

And  there  are  men  who  contribute,  by  their  intellectuality, 
by  their  executive  ability,  and  by  their  untiring  labor,  to  the 
good  of  the  world.  Many  have  I  known  in  this  Congress 
who  enter  into  this  category,  but  among  them  I  would  like 
to  speak  of  one,  who  seems  to  me  to  have  been  born  to 
direct  even  other  intellectual  men  themselves,  laying  aside  his 
worldly  tasks  to  aid  with  enthusiasm  in  the  development  of 
an  ideal  of  the  highest  culture.  Doctor  David  Peiia, — your 
nombre  is  Tact;  your  apellido,  common-sense ;  and  you  are  a 
caballero  of  Good  Heart;    and    bear    away    with  you  my  own.' 

^Doctor  Sarmiento  is  a  descendant  of  a  former  president  of  the 
same  name,   one  of  the  most   illustrious  in  the  history  of  Argentina. 

^The  description  of  Doctor  Pefia  falls  "flat"  in  English.  Nombre 
means  Christian  name ;  apellido,  family  name ;  caballero  is  gentleman, 
but  carries  also  the  significance  of  a  title,  which  was  its  use  here. 


14  A  Californian  in  South  America 

There  remain  other  traits  to  talk  about,  and  I  would  like 
to  make  individual  mention  of  all  who  exemplify  them,  but 
the  minutes  are  few  during  which  I  ought  to  speak.  On  this 
account  I  shall  go  on  telling  what  I  have  learned  without 
indicating  the  many  men  who  have  taught  me.  I  shall  speak 
to  my  pupils  of  the  excellent  universities  of  Argentina,  whose 
professors  have  a  clarity  of  mind  and  of  words  like  the 
purity  of  a  mountain  brook ;  or  they  are  enthusiastic  battlers 
for  science,  or  notable  librarians.  There  are  also  Latin 
Americans  who,  however  good  historians  or  good  bibliograph- 
ers they  may  be,  are  in  equal  degree  lovable.  There  is  some- 
thing in  these  men  with  that  sympathetic  trait  that  makes 
me  think  of  drinking  mate,  eating  churrasco,  and  dancing  the 
tango  to  make  myself  a  Creole!^  I  shall  speak  of  some  re- 
publics, which  are  not  as  broad  in  territories  as  others,  but 
which  are  notable  among  all  for  their  good  laws  and  ad- 
vancement in  social  problems;^  republics  represented  in  this 
Congress  by  men  who  rank  with  the  most  cultivated,  hard- 
working, and  brainy;  symbols,  as  it  were,  of  their  father- 
land. One  cannot  calculate  nations  in  terms  of  leagues  for 
they  may  have  men  in  the  first  grade  of  intellectuality.  Thus 
it  is  that  they  are  without  boundaries,  but  reach  to  the  poles. 
I  have  noted  men  of  dignity  and  of  handsome  bearing,  beau- 
tiful traits  which  are  very  general  in  this  part  of  the  world. 
And  eloquence,  yes ;  everybody  agrees  that  the  Latin  American 
has  it.  What  eloquent  paragraphs  we  have  had  the  indis- 
putable pleasure  of  hearing! 

Well  and  good !  But  besides  this  there  exists  what  the 
world  has  not  known  so  well,  but  it  exists,  and  it  is  a  pro- 
found basis  of  common-sense.  There  have  been  men  in  this 
Congress  who  show  with  clearness  the  roots  of  things,  giving 
short  speeches  when  the  circumstances  required  it,  and  there 
are  others,  or  even  the  same  men,   who  in   two  words  hit  the 

*Mate  is  a  Paraguayan  tea ;  churrasco  is  a  native  Argentine  dish ; 
a  Creole  is  not  a  negro  or  an  Indian,  but  a  native  born  Argentine  of 
white  blood.  Whoever  drinks  mate,  eats  churrasco,  and  dances  the 
Argentine  tango,  will  remain  in  Argentina  forever;  so  goes  the  refrain. 

''A  reference  to  Uruguay. 


Latin  American  Traits  15 

mark.  Bibliographers,  historians,  musicians,®  devotees  of  cul- 
ture, dearly-beloved  friends!  What,  in  fine,  is  the  cultivated 
Latin  American!  Through  your  Latin  blood  I  find  that  you 
conceive  and  see  with  more  clearness  than  the  people  of  the 
north.  I  see  that  you  feel  and  aspire  with  more  ardor  of  the 
soul  than  they.  But  if  the  Latin  blood  is  lacking  at  times  in 
perseverance,  then  may  we  repair  to  the  second  part  of  your 
name,  for  you  are  not  only  Latins,  but  also,  like  my  country- 
men— Americans!  In  this  hemisphere  we  have  a  new  world, 
younger  than  the  other,  but  more  wholesome  and  more  cap- 
able. If  my  eyes  do  not  deceive  me,  that  perseverance  is  here. 
Has  it  been  lacking  in  Nicanor  Sarmiento?  Has  it  lacked 
in  David  Pefia?  No — nor  in  the  other,  very  much  esteemed 
by  me,  American  brothers  of  our  Congress.  I  am  grateful  for 
the  many  words  which  have  been  spoken  about  the  breadth 
of  our  culture  in  North  America.  But  I  wish  to  inform  you 
that  it  was  not  a  matter  of  great  importance  until  thirty  years 
ago,  and  by  that  many,  and  a  few  more,  we  have  had  an  ad- 
vantage over  you,  in  that  our  independence  was  declared  be- 
fore yours.  Long  live  our  Institute  of  Buenos  Aires !  May 
others  spring  up  in  other  lands !  Then  indeed,  within  a  few 
years  we  shall  all  see  one  another  as  friendly  rivals  in  culture, 
and  brothers  in  life. 

Does  it  seem  good  to  you  w^iat  I  am  going  to  say  to 
those  two  hundred  pupils?  Have  I  justified  the  expense 
necessary  for  a  journey  from  California  to  Buenos  Aires? 
Well  and  good!  But  may  you  do  the  same — come  to  Cali- 
fornia! I  shall  show  you  that  class  of  two  hundred,  half  of 
whom  are  young  ladies.  How  would  you  like  to  look  into 
two  hundred  eyes — without  paying  any  attention  to  the  other 
two  hundred — eyes  that  are  blue,  as  well  as  brown?  And 
that  reminds  me  of  the  young  ladies  who  have  attended  this 
Congress.  Although  they  are  not  present  I  can  do  no  less 
than  recall  their  beauty,  the  smiles  on  their  lips,  and  their 
perfect  harmony  in  an  atmosphere  of  intellectuality. 

Gentlemen,  I  thank  you  with  all  my  heart  for  your  cour- 

"A  reference  to  the  man  who  sat  opposite  me,  Seiior  Islenchaca, 
inventor   of   a   new   system   of   musical    notation. 


i6  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

teous  attentions,  and  I  invite  you,  whenever  you  are  able,  to 
come  to  the  University  of  California, — for  there  in  my  house, 
you  will  find  your  own. 


DOCUMENT  IV. 

California. 

Translation  of  a  talk  given  by  Dr.  Charles  E.  Chapman,  delegate 
from  the  University  of  California,  to  the  American  Congress  of  Bib- 
liograph}-  and  History,  at  a  literary  function  of  the  Congress  in  the 
Ateneo  Nacional  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  original  Spanish  was  pub- 
lished  in  La  Mahana,   Buenos  Aires,   July,   1916. 

After  a  few  preliminary  remarks,  without  announcing  his 
subject,  the  speaker  proceeded  as   follows: 

I  am  going  to  speak  of  a  land,  half  real,  half  fabled,  as 
notable  in  romance  as  it  is  beautiful  in  life.  Let  us  see  if 
you  recognize  it.  It  is  divided  into  counties,  or  departments, 
among  which  are  those  of  San  Luis  Obispo,  San  Bernardino, 
Santa  Barbara,  Salinas,  Tulares,^  Monterey,  Marin  and  Sonoma. 
Now  hear  the  names  of  some  of  the  towns,  such  as  Vallejo, 
Coronado,  San  Jose,  San  Mateo,  Santa  Cruz,  San  Juan  Bau- 
tista,  San  Luis  Rey,  San  Miguel,  Santa  Ines,  San  Rafael.  San 
Juan  Capistrano,  Santa  Lucia,  San  Pablo,  San  Gabriel,  San 
Fernando,  Purisima  Concepcion,  Carmelo,  Alameda,  Palo  Alto, 
Pajaro,  Saucelito,-  Escondido,  Ventura,  even  Pozo, — and  so 
many  others,  what  with  names  of  men  and  saints  and  those  of 
a  descriptive  nature,  that  one  could  go  on  with  the  list  for  half 
an  hour.  Now,  do  you  know  the  land  to  which  I  refer?  Well 
then,  I  am  going  to  tell  you  of  four  of  the  five  greatest  cities 
in  that  land,  in  reverse  order  of  their  size.  The  fifth  in  rank 
is  called  San  Diego ;  the  fourth,  Sacramento,  is  the  capital ; 
jumping  the  third  we  come  to  Los  Angeles,  the  second  in  size, 
with  a  population  of  about  four  hundred  thousand ;  and  the 
first,  a  city  of  nearly  half  a  million  inhabitants,  is  San  Francisco. 
Now  you  know  the  land  of  which  I  am  talking.,   and  that  it 

^Since  "Tulare"  is  not  correct  Spanish,  it  was  deemed  better  to 
use   "Tulares,"   the   plural   of    Hilar. 

^"Saucelito"  is  the  former  name  of  "Sausalito"  and  being  a 
Spanish  word,  which  "Sausalito"  is  not,  was  preferred  in  this  account. 


California  1 7 

is  not  in  Spain,  nor  yet  in  Latin  America,  for  it  is  no  other 
than  the  State  of  California  in  North  America, — toward  which 
I  ask  permission  to  direct  your  kind  attention. 

Speaking  of  the  real,  the  present  day  California,  I  could 
use  the  whole  night  in  recording  its  almost  unique  beauties, 
its  mild  climate,  its  romantic  history,  and  the  ardent  affection 
of  its  inhabitants  for  everything  that  reminds  them  of  the 
former  dominion  of  Spain.  California  is  only  one  of  the  forty- 
eight  United  States,  but,  within  that  Union,  is  a  little  world 
somewhat  different  from  the  rest  of  the  country,  and  so 
alluring  that  it  is  the  most  preferred  land  of  recreation  in 
North  America.  Its  mountains  are  the  highest  in  the  United 
States,  and  some  of  its  valleys  descend  even  below  the  level 
of  the  sea.  Its  trees  are  at  the  same  time  the  largest,  and, 
in  my  opinion,  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world.  Its  high- 
ways are  as  excellent  as  might  be  expected  in  a  land  where 
one  person  in  every  thirteen  is  the  possessor  of  an  automobile — 
there  are  about  180,000  machines  in  a  population  of  about 
2,750,000.  Very  rich,  too,  is  California  in  products  of  the  soil, 
and  so  too  in  the  dwellings  of  its  inhabitants,  many  of  whom 
have  made  their  millions  in  the  eastern  part  of  North  America, 
to  enjoy  them  later  in  the  smiling  land  that  looks  out  upon 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

This  is  the  real,  the  present-day  California.  But  what 
of  the  California  of  fable?  For  centuries  the  name  California 
has  had  a  romantic  meaning,  as  of  an  unknown  land,  of 
fabulous  wealth.  The  most  notable  description  in  this  sense 
was  that  of  the  illustrious  author  of  novels  of  chivalry,  Mon- 
talvo.  You  will  remember  that  celebrated  series  of  novels 
about  the  feats  of  Amadis  de  Gaula,  Lisuarte  de  Grecla,  and 
other  heroes  of  the  romances  so  caricatured  and  condemned 
by  the  immortal  Cervantes  in  Don  Quijote.  One  of  that  series 
was  Las  Sergas  de  Esplandian,  the  already-mentioned  work  of 
Montalvo,  published  about  the  year  1500.  This  novel  deals 
with  a  tremendous  mythical  struggle,  although  the  author 
pretends  that  it  occurred  in  fact,  between  all  the  Christian 
and  infidel  peoples  before  Constantinople,  and  among  the  latter 
there    figured    the    queen,    Calafia,    of    an    island,    California. 


i8  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

Know,  said  Montalvo,^  that  to  the  west  of  the  Indies,  very- 
near  the  terrestrial  paradise,  there  is  an  island  California, 
which  is  inhabited  only  by  women.  Their  arms  and  utensils 
are  of  gold,  for  in  all  the  island  there  is  no  other  metal,  but 
this  exists  in  the  greatest  abundance.  To  aid  them  in  their 
wars,  he  said,  the  women  of  California  make  use  of  griffins, 
which  live  on  the  flesh  of  men,  but  which  are  absolutely  tame 
and  obedient  to  the  women.  The  women  are  among  the  most 
beautiful  in  the  world,  and  especially  the  splendid  queen  Calafia. 
Montalvo  said  much  more,  but  among  other  things,  he  said 
one  thing  that  does  not  sound  so  romantic  today,  and  that  is, 
that  those  extremely  beautiful  Califomians — were  negroes ! 

I  would  like  to  tell  you  of  the  part,  very  amusing  to 
read  today,  which  Calafia  and  her  Californians  played  in  the 
supposed  battle  of  Constantinople,  and  of  their  final  conver- 
sion to  Christianity  and  their  marriages  with  the  white  Christian 
heroes.  I  would  like,  too,  to  speak  to  you  of  the  influence  of 
this  novel  on  the  soldiers  of  Cortes,  and  the  search  for  such 
a  California  in  the  Pacific,  to  the  west  of  the  Indies,  as  Mon- 
talvo said.  In  order  not  to  take  more  time,  I  shall  tell  you 
that  the  name  was  given  to  the  land  which  now  bears  it  in 
the  belief  that  it  was  rich  in  gold — and  well  did  history  justify 
the  naming  when,  in  1848,  there  occurred  in  California  the 
famous  discovery  of  that  metal. 

And  now,  as  I  am  about  to  close,  just  a  word  of  a  re- 
cent discovery,  not  of  gold,  but  of  a  little  fact  of  history,  with 
which  discovery  the  humble  individual  who  is  addressing  you 
is  in  a  measure  connected.  It  seems  that  the  use  of  the  name 
California  by  Montalvo  in  1500  was  not  the  first.  In  the 
Chanson  de  Roland,  the  famous  epic  poem  of  the  French,  the 
word  appears  in  almost  the  same  form,  and  included  in  a  list 
of  infidel  lands.  Thus  it  seems  that  the  California  of  fable 
was  already  in  existence  at  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century, 
when  the  Mohammedans  were  still  powerful  in  Spain.  We 
are  now  asking  ourselves  in  California:  What,  after  all,  was 
California?     Was    it    a    land    of    the    caliphs    of    Damascus,    or 

'^Allowance   for  possible  inaccuracies  must  be   made,    since   no   data 
were  at  hand  for  the  preparation  of  this  paper. 


American  Congress  of  Bibliography  and  History  19 

nothing  more  than  a  preoccupation  of  the  poets?  But  you 
will  agree,  will  you  not,  that  the  story  is  romantic, — just  as 
the  present-day  land  which  bears  the  name  California  is  rich, 
smiling,   and  happy. 


DOCUMENT  V. 
The  American  Congress  of  Bibliography  and  History  at 

Buenos  Aires. 

This    report    was    first    published    in    the    October    number    of    the 
American  Historical  Review,   1916. 

On  the  9th  of  July,  1816,  a  formal  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence of  the  Spanish  Colonies  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata 
was  made  by  a  Congress  in  session  at  Tucuman.  In  conse- 
quence, a  series  of  celebrations  was  organized  in  Argentina 
for  the  month  of  July,  1916,  in  honor  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  declaration  of  Tucuman,  and  as  part  of 
the  program  a  number  of  congresses,  embracing  a  variety  of 
subjects,  such  as  the  congress  "of  the  child,"  that  of  social 
science,  and  many  others,  were  held.  One  of  those  congresses 
was  the  one  with  which  it  is  proposed  to  deal  in  this  article. 

It  is  open  to  question  whether  any  other  congress  of  the 
centenary  accomplished  more  of  real  value  than  did  the  Ameri- 
can Congress  of  Bibliography  and  History.  Its  success  was 
due  in  large  measure  to  the  untiring  efiforts  through  two  years 
of  the  organizer  of  the  congress.  Dr.  Nicanor  Sarmiento, 
member  of  the  distinguished  family  of  the  former  president  of 
that  name,  and  to  the  extremely  efficient  direction  of  the 
congress  by  its  presiding  officer.  Dr.  David  Peha,  founder  of 
the  Ateneo  Nacional  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  one  of 
the  leading  intellectual  luminaries  of  South  America.  Of  no 
small  importance,  too,  was  the  fact  that  the  congress  held  its 
meetings  at  the  Ateneo  Nacional  in  Buenos  Aires,  instead  of 
going  to  Tucuman,  thus  being  free  to  devote  its  time  to  busi- 
ness, rather  than  to  the  round  of  ceremonies  which  formed  a 
delightful,  but  somewhat  too  diverting,  feature  of  the  exer- 
cises at  Tucuman.  The  congress  began  its  sessions  on  July  5, 
and,  except  for  the  9th  of  July,  met  every  day,  often  morning, 


20  A  Californian  in  South  America 

afternoon,  and  night,  until  July  14,  a  supplementary  meet- 
ing taking  place  the  night  of  July  18.  One  day  was  given 
over  to  an  excursion  to  the  city  of  La  Plata,  but  all  the  other 
meetings  were  confined  to  business.  Historical  and  biblio- 
graphical papers  were  not  read  in  open  session,  but  were  re- 
ferred respectively  to  two  committees,  and  summaries  only 
were  submitted  to  the  congress.  Thus  a  vast  amount  of  time 
was  saved,  which  was  utilized  to  the  full,  for  the  business 
proper  of  the  congress. 

The  congress  was  attended  by  225  delegates,  representing 
institutions  in  almost  every  country  of  the  Americas.  As 
was  to  be  expected,  however,  the  greater  number  came  from 
Argentina.  The  delegates  represented  a  wide  variety  of  in- 
terests, not  only  historians  proper,  but  also  bibliographers, 
librarians,  teachers,  and  men  who  were  none  of  these,  but 
who  were  interested  in  the  subject  matter,  being  among  those 
in  attendance.  National  delegates  were  present  from  Bolivia, 
Brazil,  Chile,  Colombia,  Ecuador,  Guatemala,  Paraguay,  Peru, 
San  Salvador,  Spain,  and  Uruguay.  The  writer  of  this  article 
was  formally  a  representative  of  the  University  of  California, 
but  was  accorded  the  privileges  and  recognition  of  a  national 
delegate.  During  the  greater  part  of  the  meetings  he  was  the 
only  North  American  present,  but  in  the  closing  days  of  the 
congress,  Dr.  William  Spence  Robertson,  whose  boat  was 
late,  arrived  with  the  representation  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 
It  was  unfortunate  that  more  North  Americans  could  not 
have  been  present,  although  the  writer  feels  justified  in  saying 
that  the  mere  presence  of  one,  and  at  length  two,  was  not 
without  its  effect  in  the  deliberations  of  the  sessions.  Other 
North  American  universities  which  signified  their  adhesion  to 
the  congress  were  the  following:  Cornell,  Chicago,  Harvard, 
Louisiana,  Minnesota,  Tulane,  and  Yale.  The  following  insti- 
tutions did  likewise :  Academy  of  Political  Science  of  Phila- 
delphia, American  Association  for  International  Peace,  Ameri- 
can Historical  Association,  Library  of  Congress,  Pan-American 
Union,  and  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

The  most  important  business  concerned  the  organization 
of  the  congress  as  a  permanent  body,  and  the   founding  of  a 


American  Congress  of  Bibliography  and  History  21 

bibliographical  institute,  both  measures  being  prepared  by  a 
special  committee  of  which  the  writer  was  a  member.  A 
permanent  council  of  the  congress  was  established,  and  pro- 
vision was  made  for  a  meeting  of  the  congress  at  least  once 
every  three  years,  although  the  intention  is  that  it  shall  take 
place  every  year.  The  next  meeting  is  to  be  held  at  Monte- 
video on  August  16,  1917,  that  date  being  the  national  holiday 
of  the  Republic  of  Uruguay.  The  founding  of  the  Institute 
calls  for  more  extended  comment. 

The  American  Institute  of  Bibliography  was  founded,  and 
the  Ateneo  Nacional  of  Buenos  Aires  was  named  the  central 
and  directing  body,  that  society  having  already  accumulated 
a  considerable  fund  for  this  very  purpose.  It  aims  to  get 
together  the  most  ample  data  concerning  books  and  articles 
about  the  Americas  or  by  a  citizen  of  any  of  the  American 
republics,  and  to  supply  such  information,  at  moderate  prices, 
to  any  who  may  desire  it.  The  central  institution  plans  to 
publish  a  monthly  bibliographical  review,  charging  from  12 
to  15  pesos  ($5  or  $6)  for  an  annual  subscription.  It  also 
proposes  to  edit  works,  publish  documents,  make  translations 
of  notable  works,  prepare  catalogues  and  guides  of  archives, 
and  acquire  and  exchange  books.  It  was  decided  to  recom- 
mend to  the  governments  and  important  intellectual  societies 
of  the  Americas  that  local  bibliographical  institutes  be  founded 
subordinate,  in  a  measure,  to  the  Ateneo  Nacional  of  the  Ar- 
gentine Republic,  with  a  view  to  uniformity  of  objects  and 
methods,  the  subordinate  institutes  maintaining  correspondence 
with  the  central  institute.  Dr.  David  Pefia  was  named  presi- 
dent of  the  Institute  of  the  Ateneo  Nacional. 

Although  the  program  of  the  Institute  is  exceedingly 
broad,  the  writer  is  confident  that  a  practical  result  of  value 
to  North  American  students  may  be  obtained.  This  opinion 
he  bases  on  the  exceptional  executive  ability  and  scholarship 
of  Dr.  Pefia,  and  on  the  start  that  has  already  been  made 
by  the  Ateneo  Nacional  on  its  own  account. 

Of  the  other  business  of  the  congress  the  following  reso- 
lutions embodied  what  is  perhaps  of  most  interest  to  North 
American   scholars. 


22  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

That  the  bibhographical  reviews  now  in  existence  and 
those  which  may  be  founded  be  urged  to  publish  descriptions 
of  archives  of  the  Americas,  indicating  the  principal  divisions 
of  documents,  their  state  of  preservation,  the  means  facilitated 
for  their  use,  and  any  further  information  of  service  to  the 
investigator. 

That  the  national  and  local  governments  of  the  Americas 
be  urged  to  publish  documents  concerning  the  history  of  the 
two  continents,  and  the  catalogues  of  their  archives,  sending 
a  copy  of  such  publications  to  the  bibliographical  institute  of 
the  Ateneo  Nacional  of  the  Argentine  Republic. 

That  steps  be  taken  to  urge  the  publication  of  national 
bibliographies  on  a  similar  plan,  with  a  view  to  an  eventual 
bibliography  of  the  Americas.  The  scholarly  proposer  of  this 
resolution,  Senor  Dias  Perez,,  chief  of  the  Biblioteca  Nacional 
of  Asuncion,  has  already  prepared  a  select  bibliography  for 
Paraguay  which  will  shortly  be  published. 

That,  with  a  view  to  a  broader,  mutual  understanding  be- 
tween the  various  countries  of  the  Americas,  the  congress  de- 
clare itself  in  favour  of:  An  exchange  of  professors  between 
North  America  (the  United  States)  and  the  Latin  American 
countries,  and  of  the  latter  among  themselves ;  a  formal  ex- 
change of  students  between  the  said  countries. 

That  institutions  be  urged  to  send  copies  of  their  publi- 
cations to  the  Ateneo  Nacional  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  to  ex- 
change publications  among  themselves. 

That,  in  the  same  manner,  the  exchange  of  bibliographical 
catalogues,  whether  in  book  form  or  in  pamphlet,  be  en- 
couraged. 

That  a  special  prize  be  awarded  for  the  best  bibliographical 
work  presented  at  each  succeeding  meeting  of  the  congress. 

That  the  proceedings  of  the  present  congress  be  com- 
piled and  published  in  book  form.  It  is  planned  to  include  in 
this  volume  some  of  the  shorter  bibliographical  and  historical 
articles  of  outstanding  merit  among  the  many  presented  to 
the  congress. 

In  connection  with  the  congress,  throughout  its  sessions, 
there  was  an  exposition  "of  the  book."     Many  institutions,  in- 


A  Latin  American  Historical  Reviezv  23 

eluding  some  from  North  America,  sent  work  for  this  expo- 
sition. Three  were  specially  noteworthy  for  their  amplitude 
and  value,  those  of  the  University  of  Cordoba  (Argentina), 
the  Biblioteca  Nacional  of  Asuncion,  and  the  private  collection 
of  Seiior  Corbacho  of  Lima.  The  last  named  consisted  of 
manuscripts  from  the  period  of  the  conquistadores  to  the  end 
of  Spanish  rule,  a  truly  extraordinary  and  voluminous  col- 
lection, and  if  there  are  many  more  of  the  same  type  in  Lima, 
that  city  ought  to  become  an  attractive  center  for  the  inves- 
tigator who  goes   to   the   sources. 


DOCUMENT  VL 

Anent    the    Founding    of    a    Latin  American    Historical 

Review. 

This    document    appeared    in    the    American    Historical    Reviczv    for 
October,    1916,    page    217. 

The  undersigned  wish  to  suggest  to  the  American  His- 
torical Association,  through  the  Review,  that  a  section  should 
be  devoted  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Association  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  feasibility  of  founding  a  Latin  American  His- 
torical Review.  They  believe  that  the  publication  of  such  a 
review  would  be  possibly  the  most  practical  method  for  North 
American  historical  scholars  to  co-operate  with  the  permanent 
congress  and  the  American  Bibliographical  Institute,  which 
have  just  been  established  by  the  Congreso  Americano  de 
Bibliografia  e  Historia  at  Buenos  Aires.  In  connection  with 
the  project  to  found  a  new  historical  review,  the  under-signed 
wish  to  make  the  following  tentative  sug^^'estions : 

1.  That  the  said  review  should  be  devoted  to  the  history 
(political,  economic,  social,  and  diplomatic,  as  well  as  narra- 
tive) and  institutions  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  Latin  Ameri- 
can states. 

2.  That  it  follow  the  general  style  and  arrangement  of  the 
American  Historical  Review,  but  with  more  s-pace  allotted  to 
bibliography. 

3.  That  articles  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese  be  printed 
as  well  as  those  in  English. 


24  A  Californian  in  South  America 

4.  That  the  articles  pubhshed  be  mainly  those  of  such  a 
character  that  they  cannot  find  ready  acceptance  in  the  regional 
periodicals,  which  already  exist. 

5.  That  members  of  the  American  Historical  Association 
who  may  be  interested  in  the  project,  kindly  consider  it  before 
the  December  meeting,  with  special  attention  to  its  financial 
aspects. 

Wm.   Spence  Robertson. 
Charles  E.  Chapman. 


DOCUMENT  VII. 

Report    by    the    Representative    of    the    University    of 

California   of   His    Participation    in    the   Congreso 

Americano   de   Bibliografia    e   Historia    Held 

AT  Buenos  Aires   in  July,    1916. 

To  President  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler: 

Pursuant  to  your  appointment  and  your  personal  in- 
struction the  writer  proceeded  to  Buenos  Aires  to  attend 
the  Congreso  Americano  de  Bibliografia  e  Historia  as  the  dele- 
gate of  the  University  of  California.  Accompanying  this  re- 
port you  will  find  an  account  of  the  principal  achievements 
of  that  Congress  (see  Documents  V  and  VI)  ;  here,  it  is  pro- 
posed to  deal  solely  with  the  part  played  by  the  delegate  of 
the  University  of  California. 

Your  delegate  was  one  of  225  who  had  come  to  the  con- 
gress, a  number  of  whom  were  the  national  representatives  of 
most  of  the  governments  of  the  Americas.  Though  not  the 
formal  representative  of  the  United  States,  the  delegate  from 
California  was  received  as  such,  being  accorded  all  the  privi- 
leges and  precedence  that  such  a  representation  would  have 
called  for,  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  fact  that  during  most  of  the 
congress  he  was  the  only  North  American  in  attendance,  one 
other  arriving  for  the  later  days  of  the  meeting.  On  this 
account  your  delegate  was  asked  to  speak  on  all  formal  occa- 
sions, and  did  so.  I  wish  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  he  was 
asked  to   speak,   for  on  no  occasion   did  he  volunteer  or  sug- 


Report  to  the  President  of  the  University  25 

gest  that  he  would  like  to  do  so.  There  were  four  such  occa- 
sions when  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  your  delegate  to  make  a 
formal  speech,  each  one  being  delivered  in  Spanish,  to-wit : 
at  the  formal  opening  of  the  congress ;  at  a  luncheon  given 
at  the  University  of  La  Plata;  at  the  banquet  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  congress ;  at  the  formal  closing,  of  a  literary  char- 
acter, of  the  congress.  I  append  translations  Into  English  of 
the  first,  third,  and  fourth  talks  (Documents  I,  III  and  IV), 
and  may  let  them  speak  for  themselves.  The  writer  wishes 
only  to  add,  that  in  them  as  in  all  of  his  work  with  the  con- 
gress he  tried  to  bear  in  mind  three  things :  that  he  repre- 
sented the  interests  of  the  State  and  University  of  California; 
that  virtually  he  represented  the  United  States ;  that  he  was 
in  the  presence  of  Latin  Americans,  more  especially  Argen- 
tinians. 

No  translation  is  appended  of  his  talk  at  the  University 
of  La  Plata,  since  that  was  delivered  extemporaneously.  Your 
delegate  extended  cordial  greetings  to  the  University  of 
La  Plata  in  the  name  of  the  president  and  regents  of  the 
University  of  California,  expressed  his  personal  satisfaction 
at  seeing  a  university  which  reminded  him  so  much  of  his 
own  (for  the  University  of  La  Plata  is  deliberately  modelled 
on  the  North  American  plan),  and  complimented  the  univer- 
sity and  the  Argentine  Republic  on  the  high  educational  ideals 
that  the  vice-president  of  the  University  of  La  Plata  (in  the 
absence  of  the  president)  had  just  set  forth  as  the  aim  of 
his  university.  The  vice-president  took  occasion  to  reply, 
expressing  his  thanks  and  saying  that  he  would  welcome  the 
establishment  of  intellectual  relations  between  the  universities 
of  La  Plata  and  California.  The  first  and  third  talks  of  your 
delegate  will  be  published  in  the  proceedings  of  the  congress. 
The  third  has  already  been  published  in  full  in  La  Republica 
of  La  Plata,  occupying  most  of  the  space  devoted  to  the  ban- 
quet of  the  congress.  The  greater  part  of  the  fourth  talk  was 
published  in  La  Manana  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  writer  also 
proposes  to  append  (Document  VIII.)  the  translation  into 
English  of  an  article  now  being  prepared  for  La  Epoci  of 
Buenos   Aires  with   the    title    (translated)    "California's    Place 


26  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

in  Pan-American  Relations."  As  the  mail  for  North  America 
leaves  within  a  few  days,  it  will  be  impossible  to  enclose  the 
printed  account,  if  in  fact  it  shall  appear. 

As  for  your  delegate's  work  in  the  congress,  this  may  be 
measured  in  part  by  a  comparison  of  the  projects  that  he  pre- 
pared beforehand  and  presented  to  the  congress  with  the  re- 
sults that  were  actually  obtained.  A  note  is  appended  (Docu- 
ment II.,  see  also  Document  V.)  with  the  object  of  setting 
this  forth.  Here,  it  may  be  said  that  his  objects  were  to  pro- 
mote such  measures  as  seemed  to  him  best  suited  to  meet  the 
wishes  of  North  American  historical  scholarship,  and  to  foster 
any  measure  which  might  tend  to  a  better  mutual  understand- 
ing of  the  United  States  and  Latin  America.  Your  delegate 
was  also  a  member  of  the  most  important  committee  of  the 
congress,  the  one  which  formulated  what  was  to  be  its  prin- 
cipal results.  In  debate  he  felt  it  best  not  to  play  too  con- 
spicuous a  part,  and  so  spoke  only  in  introducing  his  own 
resolutions  or  when  specifically  asked  to  do  so  by  the  president  of 
the  congress,  something  that  happened  on  several  occasions. 
This  policy  was  justified,  he  believes,  by  the  cordial  reception 
that  he  never  failed  to  get. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  measure  of  a  delegate's  success,  but 
the  one  which  is  the  most  difficult  to  describe,  is  the  way  in 
which  he  is  received  socially  by  his  fellow-delegates  and  by 
prominent  men  of  the  city  where  a  congress  is  held.  Measured 
in  terms  of  luncheons  and  dinners,  the  count  is  already  not 
small  with  other  functions  yet  to  come.  Your  delegate  also 
received  invitations,  which  he  was  obliged  to  decline,  owing 
to  lack  of  time,  to  speak  before  the  Ateneo  Nacional  and  be- 
fore the  Sociedad  de  Empleados  de  Banco  (Bank  Employees' 
Club).  A  better  index,  however,  is  that  of  the  very  agreeable 
personal  relations  of  an  informal  character  that  he  has  had 
with  members  of  the  congress.  The  writer  is  more  grateful 
than  he  can  express  for  the  kind  attentions  that  have  been 
showered  upon  him,  especially  by  men  who,  like  David  Pefia, 
Nicanor  Sarmiento,  Viriato  Diaz  Perez,  Carlos  Salas,  Alberto 
del  Solar,  and  Jose  Lestache,  were  outstanding  figures  of  the 
congress.     Your  delegate  would  be  happy  if  you  might  direct 


Report  to  the  President  of  the  University  2y 

a  letter  to  Dr.  David  Pefia  (Ateneo  Nacional,  Charcas  1743, 
Buenos  Aires),  thanking  him  for  the  kindness  which  he  per- 
sonally and  so  many  others  displayed  toward  your  delegate. 
Such' a  letter,  the  writer  believes,  would  not  be  unwelcome  to 
the  recipient  and  would  redound  to  the  credit  of  the  University 
of  California  in  the  minds  of  Argentinians.  To  repeat  what 
men  have  said  of  your  delegate  in  open  session  or  to  him 
personally  would  be  improper  without  documentary  evidence, 
but  in  two  instances  this  exists.  One  is  a  speech  of  Sefior 
Menchaca  and  the  other  an  address  of  Dr.  Pefia.  The  pub- 
lished account  of  each  is  appended.^  The  address  of  Dr.  Pefia 
is  especially  noteworthy,  not  only  because  of  the  position  he 
occupied  as  president  of  the  congress,  but  also  because  it  was 
the  principal  address  at  the  formal  closing  of  the  congress,  in 
which  Dr.  Pefia  summed  up  its  work.  Not  only  is  the  reference 
to  the  University  of  California  delegate  a  generous  one,  but 
also  the  amount  of  space  is  noteworthy,  when  one  considers 
the  number  of  delegates  and  the  comparatively  brief  space 
given  to  most  of  the  formally  accredited  national  delegates. 
The  paragraph  may  be  translated  freely  as  follows : 

"Among  the  outstanding  figures  of  the  congress  there 
appeared  from  the  very  inaugural  session  that  of  Dr.  Don 
Carlos  E.  Chapman,  professor  of  the  University  of  California. 
In  a  Spanish  that  was  well  dominated,  as  if  his  very  pre- 
caution might  have  made  it  more  firm  and  sure,  he  expresses 
his  clear-cut  ideas  with  that  precision  of  the  smith  accus- 
tomed to  the  blows  of  the  forge.  A  man  worth  while  to  those 
on  this  side  of  the  Americas,  he  has  been  so  in  very  truth 
for  the  objects  of  this  congress,  because  of  his  character  as  a 
university  professor  and  his  exceptional  dedication  to  the 
document  (  i.  e.  emphasis  on  the  importance  of  utilizing  source 
materials    in    historical    writings).      Dr.    Chapman    has    not    so 


iPena's  reference  to  Dr.  Chapman  is  given  in  the  hody  of  this 
article.  Menchaca  included  him  in  a  paragraph  in  which  he  alhided 
to  the  "prominent  men"  in  attendance  at  the  Congress,  descrihing  him 
as  "the  shnpatico  delegate  of  the  University  of  CaHfornia,  so  f  'r  r.i 
his  judgments,  and  clear  in  his  observations,  who  has  furnished  us 
with  so  much  interesting  data  about  the  rich  archive  of  the  Ind'-s  at 
Seville,   the   result   of   his   own   researches   therein." 


28  A  Californian  in  South  America 

much  as  by  a  single  gesture  pretended  to  any  superiority  over 
us.  I  can  in  no  better  way  eulogize  his  character  as  a  man 
of  the  world  and  of  talent." 

The  remarks  about  your  delegate's  not  having  made  any 
pretence  of  superiority  will  be  understood  by  those  well  ac- 
quainted with  Latin  America,  but  require  elucidation  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  are  not.  The  keen  Latin  perception  de- 
tects the  air  of  superiority  if  it  exists,  and  often,  perhaps, 
believes  it  to  exist  when  the  unfortunate  North  American  has 
intended  no  such  thing,  but  has  merely  expressed  himself 
badly.  The  one  or  the  other  has  happened  so  often  that  Latin 
Americans  have  come  to  regard  us  as  apt  to  have  opinions 
that  are  not  very  flattering  to  their  own  amour  propre.  The 
writer  believes,  therefore,  that  his  own  usefulness  at  the  con- 
gress depended  very  largely  on  the  fact  that  he  did  not,  as 
indeed  he  could  not,  pretend  to  be  a  person  of  consequence, — 
added  to  a  certain  facility  that  he  had  in  speaking  and  under- 
standing Spanish. 

Very  respectfully, 

Charles  E.  Chapman. 


DOCUMENT  VIIL 
California's    Place    in    Pan-American    Relations. 

The    original    Spanish   was   published    in    La   Epoca,    Buenos    Aires, 
July,    1916. 

At  the  moment  when  we  have  just  celebrated  the  happy 
completion  of  one  hundred  years  of  Argentine  independence, 
it  is  fitting  to  stop  a  moment  to  pass  in  review  and  ponder 
what  has  happened  in  the  many  branches  of  Argentine  life. 
In  one  corner  of  that  life  one  finds  the  ideal  of  Pan-Ameri- 
canism, and,  within  that,  the  relations  between  Argentina  and 
North  America.  It  is  of  record  that  North  America  has  two 
advantages  in  her  development — that  of  a  more  happy  colonial 
life,  and  that  of  having  obtained  her  independence  some  forty 
years  before  Argentina.  Nevertheless,  in  the  memorable  year 
of  i8i6^  the  two  countries  were  alike  in  this, — that  each  had  a 

^On    July    9,    1816,    the    independence    of    the    Spanish    colonies    of 
the  Rio  de  la  Plata  was  declared  at  Tucuman. 


California's  Place  in  Pan-American  Relations  29 

civilization  markedly  that  of  the  mother  country,  but  modified 
by  the  somewhat  difficult  conditions  of  the  new  world,  and 
that  each  had  the  same  ideals  of  government  and  of  liberty. 
In  everything  else  we  were  so  far  apart  from  one  another  that 
the  two  countries  were  almost  the  absolute  opposite  of  each 
other.  In  addition  to  the  difference  of  our  English  civiliza- 
tion from  your  Spanish,  there  were  almost  no  relations  between 
us,  whether  commercial  or  social. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  result  of  an  hundred  years.  The 
equality  of  conditions  has  continued  in  this,  that  each  country 
possessed  abundant  lands  and  developed  within  itself,  but  with 
the  important  addition  that  very  diverse  influences  from  all 
parts  of  Europe  have  entered  in  both.  Thus  we  have  grad- 
ually approached  each  other,  year  after  year.  Today,  Ar- 
gentina is  to  be  seen  with  a  civilization  that  it  is  not  proper 
to  call  Spanish.  Many  Spanish  elements  still  remain,  but  with 
the  addition  of  others  that  are  Italian,  English,  German,  and 
French.  All  have  combined  to  form  what  cannot  be  called 
anything  but  an  Argentine  civilization  proper.  In  like  man- 
ner has  it  passed  w^th  us.  The  North  American  is  not  Eng- 
lish, but  a  compound  of  the  English  with  German,  Scotch, 
Irish,  Italian,  French,  and  Spanish  elements.  This  shows,  I 
believe,  that  a  strong  basis  of  sympathy  is  developing  in  the 
two  Americas — founded  on  much  more  than  our  similar  forms 
of  government.  The  basis  is  here,  but  relations  with  one  an- 
other have  little  more  than  started.  There  is  much  yet  that 
the  two  peoples  can  learn  from  each  other,  for  the  good  of 
both.  Laying  aside  commercial  affairs  and  political  treaties, 
which  can  indeed  be  amplified,  there  still  remains  that  which 
is  more  properly  of  a  social  character,  to  which  it  is  worth 
while  to  refer. 

The  notable  English  historian,  Mr.  Martin  A.  S.  Hume, 
wrote  an  article  a  while  ago  in  which  he  expressed  an  opinion 
that  the  very  differences  between  the  North  American  and  the 
Spaniard  are  of  a  character  which  attracts  the  one  to  the 
other,  rather  than  the  reverse.  Mr.  Hume  was  writing  of  the 
Spaniard,  but  dealt  with  characteristics  which  are  equally  Ar- 
gentine,   so    that    the    argument    serves    for    Argentinian-North 


30  A  Californian  in  South  America 

American  relations.  Not  to  delay  too  much  over  the  article 
by  Mr.  Hume,  I  shall  point  out  what  he  said — that  the  Spaniard 
(like  the  Argentinian)  has  some  extremely  sympathetic  traits 
but  does  not  reject  the  practical,  and  that  the  North  American, 
at  the  same  time  that  he  is  very  practical,  is  very  fond  of 
anyone  who  possesses  such  sympathetic  traits  as  does  the 
Spaniard, — and  as  also  the  Argentinian  does.  Thus  it  is, 
that  only  a  better  understanding  is  lacking,  and  that  calls 
for  a  greater  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  friendly  rela- 
tions— and   nothing   more. 

Speaking  in  the  American  Congress  of  Bibliography  and 
History,  I  pointed  out  how  eagerly  we  are  seeking  a  better 
understanding  with  the  Latin  Americans.  I  referred  to  the 
extraordinary  development  of  the  study  of  Spanish  in  North 
America,  and  to  the  tremendous  impulse  toward  the  study  of 
Latin  American  countries.  Nowhere  in  the  United  States 
have  these  tendencies  been  stronger  than  in  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia, in  the  extreme  west  of  the  country.  There  more  than 
anywhere  else,  the  spirit  of  the  former  Spanish  civilization 
has  remained;  there  one  finds  a  fond,  even  enthusiastic,  love 
for  all  that  reminds  one  of  the  Spanish  influence,  and,  by 
association  of  ideas,  for  everything  Hispanic  and  Latin  Ameri- 
can. The  old  Franciscan  missions  are  preserved  with  the  most 
affectionate  care ;  there  are  many  who  possess  two  native 
tongues — the  Spanish  and  the  English,  and  the  former  is 
studied  in  the  secondary  schools  by  nearly  everybody,- — much 
more  than  French  or  German ;  and  there  we  have  the  great 
University  of  California,  with  its  ten  thousand  pupils  and 
eight  hundred  teachers,  devoting  itself  in  large  measure  to 
Hispanic  and  Latin  American  studies,  more  than  in  the  other 
universities  of  North  America.  Does  it  not  prove  something 
that  the  University  of  California  has  sent  the  writer  of  this 
article  on  a  journey  of  16,000  kilometres  (and  double  that, 
with  the  return  journey),  to  take  part  in  a  congress  of  history 
and  bibliography  in  Buenos  Aires?  If  it  had  any  further 
object,  it  was  only  that  it  desired  me  to  study  Latin  America 
from  close  at  hand,  in  order  to  teach  it  later  to  my  pupils,  with 
greater  knowledge  and  more  sympathy. 


A  Visit  with  Jose  Toribio  Medina  3^ 

In  fine,  I  believe  that  California,  because  of  its  history 
and  traditions,  because  of  its  blood  and  language,  and  be- 
cause of  the  studies  of  its  greatest  university,  is  the  most 
suitable  medium  in  North  America  for  the  development  of  a 
better  understanding  between  North  America  and  the  sister 
republics  to  the  south,— and,  as  the  principal  interest  of  Ar- 
gentinians, between  North  America  and  the  very  sympathetic 
and  powerful   Republic  of  Argentina. 

DOCUMENT  IX. 

A  Visit  With  Jose  Toribio  Medina 

By  Charles   E.   Chapman,   Assistant   Professor  of   History, 

University  of   California. 

This    article   has    been    accepted    for    publication    in    the    May,    1917, 
Overland. 

In  Chile  one  hears  a  great  deal  of  the  heroes  of  the  war 
of  independence  against  Spain,  O'Higgins,  Cochrane  and  San 
Martin,  of  the  beloved  hero  of  the  war  of  1879  with  Peru, 
Arturo  Prat,  of  the  poet  Bello,  and  of  the  historians  Vicuna 
Mackenna  and  Claudio  Gay.  These  are  but  dimly  known 
names  in  the  northern  world,  except  to  men  who  have  special- 
ized in  the  Latin  American  field,  but  where  will  one  go  in 
the  scholarly  world  and  find  a  man  who  has  not  heard  of  the 
colossus  of  bibliographical  lore,  Jose  Toribio  Medina  of  San- 
tiago de  Chile  ?^  It  was  with  something  of  the  feelings  of  a 
pilgrim  entering  Jerusalem  or  Mecca  that  I  approached  the 
Calle  Doce  de  Febrero,  in  which  street,  at  number  49,  is  the 
house  of  Sefior  Medina.  A  sumptuous  and  elegant  street? 
Far  from  it!  There  were  only  two  houses  in  the  block  that 
were  two  stories  high,  and  neither  bore  the  number  49.  The 
servant  girl  who  took  my  card  when  I  had  reached  the  house, 
informed  me  that  Sefior  Medina  was  not  at  home,  but  if  T 
would  come  the  next  morning  at  eight,  I  would  certainly  find 

II  have  borrowed  freely,  especially  for  exact  biographical  data, 
from  a  pamphlet  of  Armando  Donoso  entitled:  Vtda  y  Viajcs  de  un 
erudito  .  .  .  Jose  Toribio  Medina.  (Santiago,  1915).  I  have  used  no_th- 
ng,  however,  that  did  not  come  up  in  my  conversations  with  benor 
Medina. 


32  A  Californian  in  South  America 

him.  I  half  wondered  if  he  had  given  orders  to  return  that 
answer  to  all  who  called, — so  as  not  to  be  disturbed  in  his 
invaluable  wQjk,  or  so  as  to  test  their  sincerity, — but  I  re- 
solved to  make  a  supreme  effort  and  be  there  next  morning 
at  eight. 

Later  on,  this  day,  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  Biblioteca  Nacional. 
As  I  was  taking  my  leave  of  Sehor  Laval,  one  of  the  librarians, 
he  asked  me  to  meet  Sehor  Blanchard-Chessi,  head  of  one  of  the 
most  important  sections  of  the  library.  We  went  into  the 
latter's  office,  and  I  was  presented  in  due  form. 

"Perhaps  you  would  like  to  meet  this  gentlemen  who  is 
working  here,"  said  Seiior  Laval,  in  an  absolutely  casual  tone, 
indicating  a  little  old  gentleman  who  had  three  or  four  vol- 
umes   open    before    him.      "Sehor    Medina,    permit    me \" 

Sehor  Medina,  indeed !  Perhaps,  I  did  want  to  meet  him ! 
There  was  nothing  in  Santiago  I  wanted  more !  I  nearly 
"jumped  out  of  my  boots"  with  enthusiasm.  So  I  sat  down 
and  chatted  awhile  with  Medina  and  Blanchard-Chessi,  and 
pretty  soon  I  prepared  to  leave,  for  it  seemed  almost  criminal 
to  take  the  time  of  Jose  Toribio  Medina.  But  no,^ — he  would 
not  have  it !  On  the  contrary,  he  said  that  he  had  done  enough 
work  for  one  day,  and  suggested  that  we  stroll  down  to  his 
house,  where  he  could  show  me  his  library  and  his  printing 
establishment.  So  we  walked  down, — went  all  through  the 
house, — were  joined  by  Sehora  Medina  and  had  tea.  Nor  was 
this  all,  for  I  was  invited  to  come  to  luncheon  next  day,  an 
opportunity  of  which   I   most  certainly  availed   myself. 

I  had  visualized  Medina  as  a  man  of  tremendous,  almost 
forbidding  erudition,  cold  and  precise  in  speech,  and  bent  in 
figure  with  the  weight  of  his  learning.  I  was  right,  certainly, 
as  to  the  vastness  of  his  knowledge,  but  in  everything  else  I 
was  wide  of  the  mark.  At  the  time  I  visited  him  (in  August, 
1916)  he  was  not  quite  64,  (born  October  21,  1852),  a  small 
man,  certainly  not  over  five  feet  four  inches  tall,  and  with  a 
youthful  vigor  and  a  pair  of  eyes  of  such  exceptional  keen- 
ness that  one  might  place  him  in  the  forties,  despite  the  par- 
tial appearance  of  gray  hair.  His  conversation  too,  has  a  lively 
sparkle,  full  of  anecdote   and  jovial   reminiscence.     Withal,   he 


A  Visit  with  Jose  Toribio  Medina  33 

is  a  simple  and  modest  man.  He  has  been  told  of  his  world- 
wide fame,  but  hardly  seems  to  realize  it;  he  views  his  repu- 
tation as  if  it  belonged  to  another  man,  related  in  some  inde- 
finable manner  to  himself. 

And  yet  what  a  life  this  man  has  had,  and  what  a  work 
he  has  done !  His  life  in  large  measure  explains  his  work, 
and  is  perhaps  a  very  worthy  lesson  in  the  science  of  biblio- 
graphy. His  father,  though  a  man  of  literarj-  talent  himself, 
frowned  on  the  similar  aspirations  of  his  son,  planning  for 
him  instead  a  career  of  practical  utility  in  the  field  of  law 
and  politics.  Medina,  in  fact,  became  a  lawyer,  and  a  national 
deputy  and  secretary  of  his  party,  but  even  in  these  active 
years  he  was  preparing  himself  for  his  later  career.  He  read 
with  avidity  the  old  chroniclers  of  the  colonial  era,  and  by 
way  of  variety  displayed  an  interest  in  literature  in  general, 
in  folklore,  and  in  ethnology,  writing  several  articles  on  these 
subjects,  among  which  may  be  noted  his  translation  of  Long- 
fellow's "Evangeline."  In  succeeding  years,  too,  he  studied 
not  a  little  in  the  field  of  natural  science  and  astronomy,  all 
of  which  subjects  he  considers  to  have  been  of  great  help 
to  him  in  his  historical  deductions.  In  1874  he  was  appointed 
secretary  of  the  Chilean  legation  in  Lima,  a  fortunate  appoint- 
ment which  marked  the  turning-point  of  his  career.  Despite 
the  hard  work  of  the  legation,  Medina  found  time  to  visit  the 
libraries  and  archives  of  Lima,  and  to  publish  several  historical 
studies.  In  1876,  he  decided  to  visit  the  United  States,  in 
order  to  attend  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia,  and 
although  this  necessitated  his  resignation  from  the  service,  he 
carried  his  resolution  into  effect.  For  three  months  he  was  in 
the  United  States.  By  this  time  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  follow  the  career  toward  which  he  had  all  along  been  in- 
clined; so  he  now  set  out  for  a  journey  of  study  in  Europe. 
For  several  months  he  was  in  London,  working  by  the  side 
of  Pascual  de  Gayangos  in  the  British  museum.  He  then  went 
to  Paris,  where  he  frequented  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  going 
later  to  Spain,  where  he  stayed,  on  this  occasion,  but  a  short 
time.     In  June,   1877,  he  was  back  again  in  Chile,  and  in   the 


34  A  Californian  in  South  America 

following  year  he  published  his  three  volume  Historia  de  la 
Literatura  Colonial,  the  fruits  of  his  journey  to  Europe. 

Possibly  the  keenest  and  most  persistent  desire  of  Medina's 
literary  career,  cherished  since  boyhood,  and  only  now  about 
to  be  realized  with  the  publication  of  the  third  and  fourth 
volumes  of  his  work,  has  been  the  study  of  the  life  of  Ercilla, 
author  of  the  famous  poem,  La  Araucana.  It  was  this  which 
led  him  soon  to  undertake  a  dangerous  journey  to  Araucania  in 
Southern  Chile,  a  journey  rendered  difficult,  not  only  by  the 
lack  of  means  of  communication  in  that  day,  but  also  by  the 
hostility  of  the  Araucanian  Indians,  whom  he  came  to  study 
at  close  range.  Upon  his  return,  Medina  plunged  into  his 
work,  which  was  to  appear  later  as  Los  Aborigenes  de  Chile, 
but,  before  he  could  finish  it,  war  broke  out,  in  1879,  against 
Peru  and  Bolivia.  At  first,  Medina  was  connected  with  the 
manufacture  of  cartridges  for  the  army,  but,  having  invented  a 
method  which  facilitated  that  manufacture,  he  was  promoted 
and  sent  north  to  Iquique.  His  principal  service  in  that  region 
was  as  judge  of  the  district,  a  post  which  he  held  for  a  year 
and  a  half. 

A  fortunate  acquaintance  in  Iquique  with  Patricio  Lynch 
procured  for  Medina  an  appointment  as  secretary  of  legation 
in  Madrid  when  the  former  was  sent  as  minister  to  Spain. 
For  several  years,  Medina  made  the  most  of  the  opportunity 
which  had  been  given  to  him,  being  encouraged  in  his  re- 
searches by  the  Chilean  government,  which  granted  a  small 
sum  of  money  for  the  making  of  copies.  No  less  than  365 
volumes  of  copies,  of  500  pages  each,  were  the  result  of  his 
labors.  Furthermore,  he  formed  valuable  friendships  at  this 
time  with  men  like  the  Duke  of  T  'Serclaes  and  the  Marquis 
of  Jerez  de  los  Caballeros,  with  Monsignor  Delia  Chiesa  (now 
Pope  Benedict  XV),  and  especially  with  men  of  letters  like 
Menendez  y  Pelayo,  Campoamor,  Nunez  de  Arce,  Tamayo  y 
Baus,  Fernandez  Guerra,  Zaragoza,  Fernandez  Duro,  and  a  host 
of  others.  Laden  with  rich  materials  Medina  returned  to 
Chile  in  1886,  in  which  year  he  married  Mercedes  Ib.inez  y 
Rondizzoni.  From  that  year  until  1892  he  was  engaged  in  a 
mad   fever  of  publication,,   no   less   than   24   volumes   appearing 


A  Visit  with  Jose  Toribio  Medina  ■  35 

over  his  name,  among  them  his  Historia  del  Tribunal  del 
Santo  Oficio  de  la  Inquisicion  en  Lima  (2  v.),  Historia  del 
Tribunal  del  Santo  Oficio  de  la  Inquisicion  en  Chile  (2  v.), 
Coleccion  de  Documentos  para  la  Historia  de  Chile  (4  v.), 
Coleccion  de  Historiadores  de  Chile  y  Documentos  Relativos  a 
la  Historia  Nacional  (4 v.),  and  various  of  his  Imprenta  series 
and  other  bibliographical  works. 

In  the  midst  of  his  work  there  came  the  Chilean  revolu- 
tion of  1891.  As  a  partisan  of  the  Liberal  president,  Balma- 
ceda,  he  was  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the  other  side,  and  his 
house  was  searched  three  times  in  the  belief  that  it  was  his 
printing  press  which  was  publishing  the  Balmacedan  literature 
being  circulated  in  Santiago.  At  length,  Medina  was  obliged 
to  take  refuge  in  Argentina.  Eight  months  he  remained  In 
Argentina  an  exile,  but  in  this  period  he  became  the  friend  of 
General  Bartolome  Mitre  and  other  outstanding  figures  in  the 
scholarly  ranks  of  that  country,  besides  preparing  his  Historia 
y  Bibliografia  de  la  Lmprenta  en  el  Antiguo  Virreinato  del 
Rio  de  la  Plata.  In  October,  1892,  he  went  again  to  Spain, 
where  he  remained  four  3fears.  If  his  previous  journey  had 
been  remarkable  in  its  results,  this  was  even  more  so.  Not  to 
mention  several  works  of  his  that  appeared  while  he  was  still 
in  Spain,  he  published,  in  the  seven  years  following  his  return 
to  Chile  in  1896,  no  less  than  78  volumes.  Some  of  these 
were  documents,  with  notes  by  Medina;  others,  works  of  bib- 
liography ;  and  still  others,  volumes  of  history  proper. 

Late  in  1902  he  left  Chile  on  a  new  voyage  of  discovery, 
going  successively  to  Lima,  Guatemala  and  to  various  cities  of 
Mexico,  always  in  search  of  bibliographical  data  and  always 
adding  new  friends,  such  for  example,  as  Presidents  Estrada 
Cabrera  and  Porfirio  Diaz  of  Guatemala  and  Mexico,  and  the 
Mexican  scholars  Vicente  Andrade,  Nicolas  Leon,  Genaro 
Garcia,  and  others.  Then  he  went  to  France,  and  later  on  to 
Italy,  working,  among  other  places,  in  the  library  of  the  Vati- 
can. In  1904  he  was  in  Chile  again,  with  the  materials  for  a 
fresh  campaign  of  publication.  In  the  next  eight  years  he  pub- 
lished more  than  60  volumes,  bringing  to  a  close  his  monu- 
mental  works  on  the   bibliography  of  the   Americas. 


^6  A  Californian  in  South  America 

In  191 2  Medina  made  a  fourth  visit  to  Spain,  this  time 
resolved  to  realize  his  ambition  of  procuring  materials  about 
the  poet  Ercilla.  After  overcoming  innumerable  difficulties, 
he  was  successful  in  his  task,  and  the  years  since  1913  have 
seen  the  preparation  of  his  four  volume  work  on  Ercilla,  two 
of  which  have  already  appeared,  while  the  other  two  were  in 
page  proof  at  the  time  of  my  visit  with  Medina.  Naturally, 
this  phenomenon  who  exudes  publications  has  put  forth  several 
other  volumes  in  the  past  three  years.  By  a  narrow  margin 
Senor  Medina  missed  yet  another  long  trip,  in  191 5.  In  that 
year,  President  H.  Morse  Stephens  of  the  American  Historical 
Association  invited  him  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  associa- 
tion in  San  Francisco,  offering  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  journey. 
When  the  letter  came,  the  Medinas  were  in  the  country  at  a 
point  where  mails  arrived  very  infrequently.  Thus  it  was  that 
the  invitation  was  received  too  late.  Otherwise,  according  to 
Medina  himself,  he  would  have  accepted. 

And  now  the  house.  Although  it  is  but  one  story  high 
on  the  street  front,  it  gets  to  be  quite  big,  farther  back.  The 
greater  part  of  it  is  devoted  to  Medina's  library  and  his  print- 
ing establishment.  Naturally,  Medina  could  not  afford  a  first- 
class  printing-press,  for  he  is  not  a  wealthy  man.  His  is  noth- 
ing more  than  a  hand-press,  the  third  which  he  has  had  since 
1877,  and  from  these  three  have  issued  the  greater  number  of 
Medina's  works.  Ordinarily,  he  employs  three  or  four  men 
in  his  printing  establishment,  and  sometimes  many  more,  when 
there  is  a  pressure  of  work,  but  on  this  day,  a  Monday,  there 
was  only  one  man  at  work,  for  Monday  in  Chile  "is  a  day  lost" 
said  Medina,  the  national  curse  of  a  drunken  week-end  requir- 
ing an  extra  day  to  get  over  the  effects.  The  great  Medina 
himself  often  sets  type  and  turns  the  wheel  of  the  hand-press. 
What  a  sensation  every  lover  of  learning  must  feel  to  be  in 
this  house  which  has  meant  so  much  to  the  world,  where 
miracles  have  been  wrought  in  the  face  of  tremendous  diffi- 
culties !  As  Medina  stood  by  his  hand-press  talking  with  me, 
it  seemed  as  if  I  were  in  the  house  of  a  Gutenberg,  with 
Gutenberg  himself  accompanying  me.  In  another  room  we 
found  a  quantity  of  paper  to  be  used  in  future  volumes.     The 


A  Visit  with  Jose  Torihio  Medina  37 

present  scarcity  of  paper,  due  to  the  European  war,  has  not 
affected  Senor  Medina.  "I  foresaw  what  was  going  to  hap- 
pen," he  said,  "and  procured  an  extra  supply." 

Medina's  Ubrary,  or  rather  his  series  of  libraries,  is  one 
of  extraordinary  interest  and  value.  Of  books  of  a  general 
nature  there  are  few.  One  room  is  devoted  to  his  own  publi- 
cations, and  others  to  his  bibliographical  treasures  and  manu- 
scripts. Each  room  has  little  more  than  a  passage  way,  for 
the  books  have  overflowed  from  the  stacks  into  huge  piles  on 
the  floor.  He  has  accumulated  about  12,000  volumes  of  other 
men's  works,  virtually  all  of  them  being  of  a  date  prior  to 
the  end  of  Spanish  rule  on  the  American  continents,  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  On  Mexico  alone  he  has  no  less  than  8,000 
volumes,  all  published  before  1821.  His  particular  hobby  has 
been  the  collection  of  editions  of  Ercilla's  La  Araucana,  al- 
though he  has  not  been  able  to  get  all  of  them.  Many  other 
rare  works  are  in  his  possession,  such,  for  example,  as  the 
Thesoro  Spiritual  de  pobres  en  lenguas  Michuacal,  published 
in  Mexico  in  1575,  of  which  only  four  copies  are  known  to 
be  in  existence,  and  even  more  the  Manuale  Sacramentorum 
and  the  Ceremonial  y  Rubricas  Generales,  published  in  Mexico, 
respectively  in  1568  and  1579,  and  each,  so  far  as  can  be  as- 
certained, the  only  known  copy  in  the  world.  "What  a  task 
you  must  have  had,"  I  said,  "not  only  to  collect  this  wonderful 
library,  but  also  to  get  the  bibliographical  data  about  the 
other  volumes  referred  to  in  your  works !"  "Yes,"  he  said, 
"but  the  hardest  work  is  not  collecting;  rather,  it  is  in  verifying 
references  to  books  or  editions  of  doubtful  authenticity.  One 
item  may  require  the  work  of  a  historical  monograph, — and 
then  you   reject  it." 

An  account  of  the  life  of  Medina,  or  even  of  such  a  visit 
as  I  had,  would  be  incomplete  if  it  should  fail  to  give  generous 
space  to  Dofia  Mercedes  Ibanez  de  Medina,  wife  of  the  great 
bibliographer.  The  Ibaiiez  family  claim  descent  from  the 
Marquises  of  Mondejar,  a  noble  Spanish  house,  but  they  are 
famous  on  their  own  account,  because  of  their  participation 
in  the  political  life  of  Chile.  Seiiora  Medina  had  travelled 
widely  before  her  marriage,   for  her  father  was   in  the  diplo- 


38  A  Californian  in  South  America 

matic  service.  For  a  year  she  was  in  Washington,  during 
Grant's  administration,  where  she  learned  to  speak  EngHsh. 
President  Grant  once  talked  with  her  for  half  an  hour  at  a 
reception,  which  was  the  longest  he  had  ever  spoken  with 
any  one  person  at  such  an  affair,  according  to  the  next  day's 
papers.  "I  was  only  a  little  girl  then,"  she  said,  and  indeed 
she  looks  as  if  she  were  still  in  the  forties.  She  is  both  im- 
mensely proud  of  her  husband  and  unafifectedly  devoted  to  him. 
"The  two  principal  duties  of  a  wife,"  she  said,  "are  to  help 
her  husband  when  she  can,  and  not  to  disturb  him  at  other 
times."  She  herself  reads  proof,  makes  out  bibliographical 
cards,  and  in  fine  does  every  little  bit  of  intellectual  drudgery 
within  her  power,  to  help  the  work  along.  One  day  an  Ameri- 
can professor  and  his  wife  came  to  the  house  when  Medina 
was  out,  whereupon  the  Senora  showed  them  about.  She  did 
it  with  such  enthusiasm  and  understanding  that  the  gentle- 
man said,  "I  now  understand  why  Senor  Medina  has  been 
able  to  do  so  much  work.     He  is  tzvo." 

It  is  at  the  table  that  one  sees  Jose  Toribio  Medina  at 
his  best.-  There  he  is  full  of  joviality  and  anecdote, 
"Did  you  know  that  I  came  near  being  an  American?"  he 
said.  And  then  he  told  how  he  and  a  friend  took  rooms  with 
a  private  family  in  Philadelphia,  the  year  he  went  to  the  expo- 
sition. For  the  fifteen  nights  that  they  were  there,  neither 
went  out  of  the  house  a  night,  so  attractive  were  the  two 
daughters  of  the  family.  Medina's  friend,  a  well  known  diplo- 
mat today,  married  one  of  the  young  ladies.  Medina  likes  to 
talk  of  the  American  scholars  he  has  known,  such  as  Bingham, 
Coolidge,  Lichtenstein,  Moses,  Rowe,  and  Shepherd.  "Most 
travellers  who  come  to  Santiago  go  to  the  hill  of  Santa  Lucia," 
said  Senora  Medina,  "but  the  Americans  come  here."  '  Re- 
ferring to  his  copy  of  the  Laudationes  quinque  of  Bernabe 
Echenique,    published    at    Cordoba   in    1766,    the    first    work    in 

2^5  we  were  finishing  our  luncheon  Senor  Don  Domingo  Amu- 
nategui  Solar,  President  of  the  University  of  Chile,  came  in.  He  has 
been  in  the  habit  of  dropping  in  for  a  moment  at  this  hour,  every  day 
for  the  past  twenty  years,  for  a  word  or  two  with  his  friends,  the 
Medinas.  Sefior  Amunategui  is  not  only  a  university  president,  but 
also    a   distinguished    historian. 


A  Visit  with  Jose  Toribio  Medina  39 

the  history  of  printing  in  Argentina,  he  told  the  following 
curious  tale  of  how  he  came  to  acquire  it.  During  his  stay 
in  Argentina  he  became  intimately  acquainted  with  a  biblio- 
maniac whose  instinct  for  collection  was  so  great  that  he  did 
not  refrain  from  stealing  rare  volumes,  when  other  means  of 
acquiring  them  failed.  One  day,  this  man  visited  the  rich 
library  of  the  Franciscans  of  Cordoba.  He  was  shown  about 
the  library,  but  as  his  habits  were  not  unknown  to  the  friars, 
the  attendant  who  went  with  him  was  told  not  to  leave  him 
for  an  instant.  At  length,  in  an  out-of-the-way  corner,  he  saw 
no  less  than  five  copies  of  the  Laudationes  quinque,  which  he 
felt  that  he  must  obtain.  How  to  get  rid  of  the  attendant  was 
the  question.  An  idea  occurred  to  him ;  he  pretended  to  faint, 
and  fell  like  one  dead  to  the  floor.  The  startled  attendant 
ran  for  help — and  the  bibliophile  pocketed  all  five  of  the  rare 
volumes.  One  of  these  he  gave  to  General  Mitre  who  in  turn 
gave  it  to  Medina.  While  he  was  in  Guatemala,  Medina 
worked  in  a  building  which  was  only  a  step  from  police  head- 
quarters. Now  and  then,  his  bibliographical  toil  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  sound  of  shots  at  the  latter  edifice,  for  people 
were  executed  there  almost  daily.  One  day,  he  was  invited 
to  an  audience  with  President  Estrada  Cabrera.  A  friend  told 
him  that  various  officers  were  posted  behind  curtains  in  the 
audience  hall,  with  revolvers  cocked,  ready  to  shoot  any  visitor 
who  made  the  least  motion  which  seemed  to  them  suspicious, — 
whereupon  Medina  did  not  accept  the  invitation.  As  evidence 
of  the  unstable  state  of  afifairs  at  that  time,  Medina  tells  of 
having  to  get  a  permit  from  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  to 
leave  the  country,  and  in  order  to  embark  at  San  Jose,  a  tele- 
gram from  the  president  was  necessary.  Nobody  was  excepted 
from  these  requirements,  not  even  foreign  diplomats.  Of  an- 
other type  is  the  story  he  told  about  the  poet  Bello.  Bello 
married  an  English  girl  who  never  learned  to  speak  Spanish 
well,  in  particular  mixing  her  genders,  using  the  masculine 
when  she  should  have  used  the  feminine,  and  vice-versa.  On 
one  occasion,  when  she  said  la  cahalla  (for  el  caballo),  Bello 
said  to  her,  "For  Heaven's  sake,  woman,  either  use  the  mascu- 


40  A  Californian  in  South  America 

line  all  the  time  or  the   feminine  all  the   time,  and  then  occa- 
sionally you  will  hit  it  right." 

These  anecdotes  tell  something  of  the  nature  of  this  amiable 
gentleman,  but  there  were  others  which  tend  to  prove  that 
the  man  who  is  recognized  abroad  as  possibly  the  greatest  that 
Chile  has  produced,  is  not  fully  appreciated  in  his  own  land. 
On  one  occasion  a  distinguished  foreigner  came  to  Santiago, 
and  desired  to  call  on  Sefior  Medina.  "Do  you  know  where 
Jose  Toribio  Medina  lives?"  he  asked  a  cab  driver.  "Cer- 
tainly," was  the  reply.  It  did  not  seem  strange,  even  that  a 
cab  driver  should  know  the  residence  of  Chile's  great  man; 
so  the  gentleman  said  no  more.  Presently  he  arrived  at  the 
house  of  Sefior  Medina,  but  it  proved  to  be,  not  that  of  Jose 
Toribio,  but  that  of  a  certain  Medina,  widely  known  as  a 
proprietor  of  race-horses.  Gradually,  due  to  the  honors  ac- 
corded him  in  foreign  countries,  a  realization  is  dawning  in 
Chile  that  Jose  Toribio  Medina  is  a  man  of  note.  This  feeling 
has  not  gone  very  far,  however.  On  several  occasions  the 
government  has  given  small  sums  to  assist  his  publications, 
but  on  several  others  it  has  promised  funds,  and  then  with- 
drawn them.  The  government's  action  in  the  case  of  the 
Ercilla  documents  is  in  point.  In  1903  the  owner  of  the  docu- 
ments offered  to  grant  the  privilege  of  copying  them  for  6000 
francs.  A  bill  for  that  sum  in  the  Chilean  congress  failed, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  useless  expense.  Several  years 
later,  that  sum  was  voted  by  the  government,  but  not  paid  over. 
After  Medina  had  completed  his  work  and  published  two  of 
the  volumes,  the  government  withdrew  the  grant,  on  grounds 
of  economy,  leaving  Medina  to  pay  the  bills.  Verily,  a  prophet 
is  without  honor  in  his  own  country.  "I  sometimes  wish  my 
husband  had  been  born  in  England  or  in  the  United  States," 
said  Sefiora  Medina ;  "there  they  esteem  a  man  for  his  work, 
but  here  if  one  says  nothing  about  himself,  people  think  he 
does  not  amount  to  anything.  My  husband  is  too  modest;  he 
will  not  praise  himself."  One  wonders  at  the  short-sightedness 
of  the  Chilean  millionaires  who  have  lost  a  chance  to  im- 
mortalize themselves  by  failing  to  finance  this  man  whose 
reputation   will   live  when   even  their  family  names   will   have 


A  Field  for  an  Historical  Survey  41 

passed  away.  "If  some  wealthy  Americans,  like  Carnegie  or 
Huntington,  could  be  brought  to  realize  under  what  difficulties 
you  are  doing  your  work,"  said  James  Bryce,  on  the  occasion 
of  his  visit  to  the  house  of  Medina,  "they  would  almost  cer- 
tainly want  to  assist  you  financially."  A  Chilean  senator 
was  present  at  the  time.  "No,"  said  Medina,  "it  is  not  neces- 
sary ;  the  Chilean  government  gives  me  all  I  need."  "Out  of 
patriotism,"  said  Sefiora  Medina,  who  was  telling  the  story, 
"he  would  not  tell  the  truth,  which  was  quite  different." 
"Furthermore,"  added  Medina,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  "I 
was  trying  to  produce  an  effect  on  Senator  X, —  but  it  did  not 
work." 

And  yet  could  Jose  Toribio  Medina  have  done  much  more 
under  any  circumstances?  Up  to  two  years  ago,  he  had  pub- 
lished 226  volumes,  since  which  time  a  number  of  others  have 
appeared,  to  say  nothing,  not  only  of  his  collection  of  books 
and  manuscripts,  but  also  of  his  collections  of  medals,  coins 
and  what  not.  It  is  wonderful  to  have  done  so  much  in  any 
event,  and  still  more  wonderful  to  have  done  it  in  far-away 
Chile,  with  such  slight  means  at  hand.  If  Chile  and  the  Chileans 
have  done  little  to  help,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  make 
amends,  some  day,  by  recognizing  the  merit  of  this  extra- 
ordinary man. 


DOCUMENT  X. 

South  America  as  a  Field  for  an  Historical  Survey. 

This  article  has  been  accepted  for  publication  in  the  Report  of  the 
Public  Archives  Commission,  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  American 
Historical    Association. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  excellent  series  of  guides 
to  material  in  foreign  archives  for  the  history  of  the  United 
States,  published  by  the  Carnegie  Institution,  has  already  re- 
sulted in  contributions  to  history,  of  recognized  value,  and 
enhanced  our  reputation  in  the  world  of  scholarship,  and  will 
do  so  yet  more  in  the  future.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  argue 
the  value  of  these  publications.  A  very  real  question  arises, 
however,  when  one  asks  where  such  historical  surveys  ought 
now  to  be  undertaken,  whatever  may  be  the  institution  or  insti- 
tutions   to   engage   in   the   work.      While   the   great   war   lasts, 


42  A  Californian  in  South  America 

and  perhaps  for  a  number  of  years  after  its  close,  it  will  hardly 
be  worth  while  to  send  men  to  Europe,  and  the  same  thing 
is  true  ,in  only  less  degree  as  regards  Asia.  It  is  the  purpose 
of  this  article  to  argue  for  a  campaign  in  South  America,  and 
to  present  certain  data  to  show  that  the  countries  of  the  neigh- 
boring continent  are  apt  to  yield  a  rich  harvest  of  valuable 
manuscript  material,  of  which  historians  have  as  yet  made 
little  use.  A  preliminary  question  remains  as  to  the  method 
to  be   followed. 

The  plan  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  has  been  to  seek  only 
such  material  as  related  directly  to  the  history  of  what  now 
constitutes  the  United  States,  and  to  make  general  descrip- 
tions of  the  archives  and  bundles,  or  volumes,  in  which  it  is 
found,  selecting  only  what  seemed  to  be  the  more  important 
American  items  for  individual  mention,  and  omitting  material, 
however  important  for  other  purposes,  if  it  had  no  direct  bear- 
ing on  the  history  of  the  United  States.  The  omission  was 
justifiable  in  the  case  of  guides  to  European  archives,  for  it 
certainly  is  not  necessary  for  American  historians  to  do  pioneer 
work  in  European  history,  or  in  the  case  of  such  works  as 
Bolton's  guide  to  materials  in  Mexico,  where  the  purely  local 
items  concerning  the  United  States  were  so  numerous  as  to 
require  a  volume  in  themselves.  As  for  Central  and  South 
America  and  the  Caribbean  area,  however,  it  would  seem  well 
to  modify  the  system  thus  far  employed  by  the  Carnegie  Insti- 
tution to  the  extent  of  making  general  descriptions  of  all  of 
the  material,  with  an  inclusion  in  the  individually  mentioned 
items  of  the  more  important  documents  with  regard  to  the  lands 
themselves  where  they  are  found,  as  well  as  those  related 
directly  to  the  United  States.  Not  much  of  the  necessary 
pioneer  work  has  yet  been  done  in  Latin  America,  and  no 
people  are  better  equipped  with  men  and  funds  than  our- 
selves, and  except  for  Latin  Americans,  no  others  are  more 
interested  than  we  are.  Many  will  agree  with  the  writer  that 
the  two  Americas  are  indissolubly  bound  up  with  each  other, 
whether  they  like  it  or  not,  commercially,  politically,  and  per- 
haps in  yet  other  ways.  It  is  becoming  generally  recognized 
that  the  United   States  cannot  live  unto  itself,  as  it  has  been 


A  Field  for  an  Historical  Survey  43 

doing'  in  the  past,  and — is  it  not  well  that  our  historical  work 
should  follow  the  trend  of  the  present  and  probable  future  in- 
terests of  the  country?  Who  will  deny  that  Latin  America 
is  a  vital  factor  of  inestimable  importance  in  the  foreign  rela- 
tions of  this  country?  Is  it  not  desirable,  then,  in  our  own 
interests,  as  well  as  in  theirs,  and  in  the  interests  of  historical 
scholarship  in  general,  that  we  should  seek  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  Latin  American  countries  through  the  study 
of  their  past? 

During  a  visit  of  nearly  six  months  in  South  America, 
in  the  year  1916,  the  writer  had  an  opportunity  to  make  a 
superficial  survey  of  a  number  of  important  archives.  The 
result  of  his  investigations  in  Euenos  Aires,  Santiago,  and  Lima 
will  now  be  set  forth,  not  that  they  constitute  a  guide  to  the 
archives  of  those  cities,  although  they  may  be  useful  as  a 
preliminary,  and  without  any  assertion  of  entire  accuracy  01 
due  proportion,  but  as  some  evidence  to  show  that  a  South 
American  historical  survey,  on  the  broad  basis  suggested  in 
this  article,  would  bring  a  rich  return. 

A.       BUENOS    AIRES 

I.  Archive  General  de  la  Nacion.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  important  archives  in  South  America,  and  the  conditions 
for  work  are  of  the  best.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  courtesy 
of  its  chief,  Jose  L  Biedma,  or  its  secretary,  Augusto  S. 
Mallie.  Permission  to  work  must  be  obtained  from  the  Sub- 
Secretario  de  Instruccion  Puhlica,  on  previous  advice  of  the 
head  of  the  archive,  but  any  duly  accredited  scholar  may  be 
almost  sure  of  obtaining  the  necessary  permit.  Few  archives 
are  so  entirely  at  the  disposal  of  investigators,  for  all  docu- 
ments, without  limitation  as  to  date,  are  available,  except  such 
as  may  injure  a  third  party.  By  law,  all  ministries  of  the 
government  are  required  to  send  their  papers  to  the  archive 
when  they  are  five  years  old,  but  the  law  has  not  been  very 
well   complied  with. 

There  are  perhaps   ten   thousand  or  more  bundles^   in   the 

lA  "bundle"  or  legajo,  as  used  in  this  article,  may  be  estimated  to 
contain  about  two  thousand  pages  of  material,  for  a  page  of  about 
SYz    by    11    inches. 


44  ^  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

archive,  and  they  are  gradually  being  bound  into  volumes, 
three  men  being  employed  on  the  v^^ork.  By  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  documents  relate  to  the  colonial  period,  and  in  this 
respect  the  archive  is  extraordinarily  rich;  Seiior  Biedma  be- 
lieves it  to  be  the  richest  archive  in  South  America  for  Spanish 
colonial  material,  in  part  because  the  documents  cover  the 
whole  region  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  country,  extending  even 
into  Bolivia,  and  in  part  due  to  the  scattering  of  the  formerly 
much  richer  archives  of  Peru.  The  collection  here  is  especially 
valuable  for  matters  of  real  hacienda,  or  finance,  w^hich,  of 
course,  was  the  foundation  stone  of  Spanish  colonial  adminis- 
tration. 

There  is  a  most  praiseworthy  spirit  of  co-operation  on 
the  part  of  the  archivists  with  historical  workers ;  Biedma  him- 
self is  a  veritable  enthusiast.  Two  volumes  of  documents  have 
already  been  published  by  the  archive,  one  of  the  revolutionary 
period,  and  the  other  of  royal  decrees  (cedulas)  from  1580 
to  near  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Incidentally,  a 
heater  was  installed  in  the  room  for  investigators, — a  luxury 
that  the  archivists  in  other  rooms,  Biedma  among  them,  did 
not  enjoy  for  themselves. 

2.  Museo  del  General  Mitre.  The  valuable  collections 
of  this  institution,  which  include  books,  coins,  medals,  and 
much  else,  as  well  as  manuscripts,  were  given  to  the  nation 
by  General  Mitre,  who  was  not  only  an  Argentine  president, 
but  an  all-round  scholar  and  historian  as  well.  There  are  about 
one  hundred  thousand  manuscripts  of  original  correspondence, 
dating  from  the  earliest  colonial  times,  down  to  the  year  1900. 
The  Museo  has  published  forty  volumes  of  documents,  but 
they  are  only  a  drop  in  the  bucket,  and  relate  almost  wholly 
to  Mitre's  work.  There  is  a  one-volume  index  of  colonial 
documents,  but  it  is  far  from  containing  an  indication  of  all 
the  colonial  documents  in  the  collection.  Investigators  are  free 
to  use  anything  the  Museo  has,  and  a  rough,  temporary  index 
of  manuscript  material  has  been  provided  for  their  use.  They 
may  be  sure  of  the  co-operation  of  archive  officials,  among 
whom  is  the  well  known  Argentine  scholar,  Romulo  Sabala, 
secretary  of  the  Museo. 


A  Field  for  an  Historical  Survey  45 

3.  Facultad  de  Filosofia  y  Letras.  This  college  of  the 
University  of  Buenos  Aires  is  worth  mentioning,  not  for  the 
number  of  its  manuscripts,  though  it  is  appreciable,  but  be- 
cause of  the  work  that  it  is  doing,  under  the  efficient  direction 
of  scholars  like  Doctor  Molinari  and  others.  Fourteen  volumes 
of  documents  have  already  been  published. 

4.  Other  archives  of  Buenos  Aires.  Other  archives,  indi- 
cated to  the  writer  as  being  particularly  rich  in  manuscript 
materials,  and  more  or  less  available  to  historical  investigators, 
were  those  of  the  Biblioteca  Nacional,  Biblioteca  del  Congreso, 
Archivo  de  Tribunales,  Archivo  de  Correos,  and  the  private 
collections  of  Enrique  Peiia  and  Ramon  Carcano. 

B.       SANTIAGO. 

I.  Biblioteca  Nacional.  The  archive  of  this  library  is  by 
far  the  most  valuable  in  Chile  for  historical  students,  since 
certain  other  government  archives  are  not  open  to  the  public. 
Conditions  for  investigators  are  nearly  ideal.  Permission  to 
work  is  granted  without  any  formalities  whatever;  all  that  one 
has  to  do  is  present  himself  and  begin,  and  about  the  only 
rules  are  that  one  may  not  disfigure  or  steal  a  document.  As 
yet,  not  many  investigators  have  taken  advantage  of  the  op- 
portunity to  use  this  archive,  but  they  may  be  sure  of  a 
welcome  when  they  do  come.  The  director,  Tomas  Thayer,  is 
not  only  one  of  the  best  known  historical  scholars  in  Chile, 
but  is  also  the  superlative  of  amiability  and  courtesy.  North 
Americans  have  a  certain  claim  on  him,  since  he  is  descended 
from  a  Massachusetts  family  of  the  same  name.  His  great- 
grandfather was  captain  of  a  "Boston  ship,"  which  came  to 
an  untimely  end  at  Valparaiso,  and  Senor  Thayer's  grand- 
father, who  was  also  on  board,  took  up  his  residence  in  Chile. 

The  archive  contains  material  dating  from  the  coloniza- 
tion of  Chile,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  down  to  the  year  1817. 
Naturally,  most  of  the  documents  are  for  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, but  there  are  also  a  great  many  for  the  earlier  periods. 
All  are  in  an  excellent  state  of  preservation,  for  destruction 
from  humidity  and  the  bookworm  are  unknown  in  the  excellent 
climate  of  Santiago;  the  writing  in  documents  two  centuries 
old   is   as   clear  as   if   written  but  yesterday.      In   addition,   the 


46  A  Californian  in  South  America 

most  commendable  care  is  taken  of  the  collection.  There  are 
about  sixty-five  hundred  volumes,  of  approximately  seven  hun- 
dred pages  each,  which  have  already  been  bound.  As  much 
more  material  remains  for  binding.  About  three  thousand 
volumes  relate  to  Audiencias, — not  to  the  territory  embraced 
by  the  jurisdiction  of  an  audiencia,  as  in  the  case  of  the  vv^ell- 
know^n  sets  in  the  Archivo  General  de  Indias  of  Seville,  Spain, 
but  to  acts  of  the  audiencia  itself,  such  as  cases  at  law^  and 
residencias.  A  three-volume  catalogue  of  this  set  has  already 
been  published.  There  are  nearly  a  thousand  volumes  of 
Escribanos,  a  set  rich  in  materials  for  the  social  and  economic 
life  of  colonial  Chile.  The  set  called  Coniaduria,  dealing  with 
affairs  of  real  hacienda,  contains  about  five  thousand  volumes, 
commencing  with  the  year  1609.  Over  a  thousand  volumes 
are  devoted  to  the  correspondence  of  the  captain-generals  and 
related  matters.  There  are  about  five  hundred  volumes  con- 
cerning the  Jesuits  in  Chile,  and  these  papers  are  valuable 
for  historical  data  with  regard  to  the  Philippines,  Panama, 
Porto  Rico,  and  Mexico,  because  of  the  ramifications  of  the 
Jesuit  order.  In  addition,  there  is  a  miscellaneous  aggregation 
of  volumes  which  cannot  be  characterized  by  a  single  word  or 
phrase.  Among  these  are  the  documents  on  which  the  Chilean 
historians  Gay  and  Vicuiia  Mackenna  relied,  in  writing  their 
works.  The  miscellaneous  group  also  includes  about  thirty 
volumes  of  copies  procured  at  the  Archivo  General  de  Indias. 
Sefior  Thayer  believes  that  the  archive  over  which  he  presides 
is  the  richest  in  South  America  in  colonial  material, — a  belief 
in  which   Sefior  Biedma  of  Buenos  Aires  would  not  share. 

2.  Archivo  Jeneral  de  Gobierno,  and  other  government 
archives.  Except  for  matters  related  to  courts  of  law,  the 
official  administrative  papers  of  the  Chilean  government,  from 
181 7  to  1902,  are  kept  in  the  Archivo  Jeneral  de  Gobierno.  The 
papers  of  later  date  than  1902  are  to  be  found  in  tiie  various 
ministries.  Matters  of  justice  are  in  the  archive  of  the  Tri- 
bunals de  Justicia,  where  conditions  are  similar  to  those  en- 
countered in  the  Archivo  Jeneral.  The  last-named  archive 
contains  some  thirty  thousand  volumes  of  about  seven  Hundred 
pages  each,  divided  according  to  the  ministry  from  which  they 


A  Field  for  an  Historical  Survey  47 

came.  All  are  well  taken  care  of,  and  are  kept  in  excellent, 
glass-fronted  cases.  A  suitable  person  might  obtain  permis- 
sion to  use  the  archive,  by  applying  to  the  minister  in  charge 
of  the  department  from  which  the  papers  had  come,  but  the 
collection  is  considered  a  private  archive  of  the  government,  and 
investigation  is  not  invited. 

C.       LIMA. 

1.  Scattered  archives.  The  history  of  archives  in  Lima 
is  a  tale  of  the  great  number  and  extraordinary  wealth  of  the 
documents,  and  of  disintegration  and  lack  of  organization.  Vast 
quantities  of  documents  have  undoubtedly  been  utterly  lost, 
many  have  passed  out  of  the  country  into  foreign  hands,  and 
perhaps  the  majority  that  still  remain  have  gone  into  private 
archives,  which  are  usually  inaccessible  to  historical  scholars. 
Many  notable  Peruvian  historians,  such  as  Paz  Soldan  and 
Mendiburu,  have  relied  upon  documents  belonging  to  them- 
selves in  compiling  their  histories,  but  the  great  majority  of 
these  private  collections  have  not  been  made  use  of  at  all. 

On  October  9,  1916,  while  the  writer  was  in  Lima,  a  bill 
was  introduced  in  the  Peruvian  congress  for  the  formation  of 
a  national  archive,  for  the  custody,  preservation,  deciphering, 
cataloguing  ,and  publication  of  documents ;  documents  of  the 
colonial  era  and  the  first  fifty  years  of  the  republic  were  to 
be  gathered  there,  being  taken  from  the  ministries  and  other 
governmental  depositories  where  they  now  exist,  and  docu- 
ments now  in  private  hands  were  to  be  acquired,  when  possible. 
It  is  doubtful  if  anything  comes  of  this,  even  if  the  bill  is 
passed,  for  there  is  very  little  real  interest  in  history  in  Peru, 
and  no  demand  worth  mentioning  for  organized  historical  or 
archival  work.-  The  bill  itself  calls  for  an  appropriation  of 
only  one  thousand  pounds  a  year,  out  of  which  all  expenses, 
salaries  included,  are  to  be  taken. 

2.  The  national  archive.     A  national  archive,  though  not 

-Such  were  the  views  expressed  to  the  writer  by  Dr.  Carlos 
Wiesse,  Professor  of  History  at  the  famous  University  of  San  Marcos 
of  Lima,  and  a  historian  of  note,  and  by  the  indefatigable  archaeologist 
and  historical  scholar,  Carlos  Romero,  of  the  BibUoteca  Nacional 
of   Lima. 


48  A  Californian  in  South  America 

as  an  organized,  working  institution,  already  exists,  the  docu- 
ments being  in  the  care  of  the  Biblioteca  Nacional  of  Lima. 
The  place  where  they  are  kept  was  closed,  while  the  writer  was 
in  Lima,  and  no  date  seemed  to  have  been  set  for  its  reopen- 
ing.^ It  contains  what  is  left  of  the  once  great  public  archive 
of  Lima,  with  documents  dating  from  the  earliest  colonial 
times,  down  to  the  first  year  of  the  republic,  in  1824.  Since 
1824,  public  documents  have  been  kept  in  the  different  minis- 
tries of  the  government.  The  writer  was  told  that  existing 
archives  would  probably  be  open  to  students,  but  none  of  them 
ever  come. 

Even  before  the  close  of  Spanish  rule,  the  dispersion  of 
this  wealth  had  begun,  for  retiring  officials  often  carried  away 
the  documents  that  interested  them.  Under  the  republic,  not 
much  thought  was  given  to  archive  material,  and  great  loss 
occurred  through  unlawful  sales  by  grafting  officials,  local  dis- 
turbances, lack  of  care,  and  ravages  of  the  bookworm,  which  is 
very  active  in  Lima.  In  1878,  a  definite  attempt  was  made 
to  organize  the  archive,  and  ten  manuscript  volumes  of  indices 
were  prepared.  At  that  time,  there  were  1401  bundles  and  726 
large  folio  volumes,  principally  devoted  to  Tabacos,  with  a 
considerable  amount  of  material  also  under  the  headings  of 
Inquisician  and  Tempor  alidades — Jesuit  as.* 

The  work  done  in  1878  was  rendered  of  no  avail  by  the 
disastrous  war  with  Chile,  which  broke  out  in  1879.  The 
national  archive  did  not  suffer  from  spoliation  by  the  Chileans 
so  much  as  some  other  institutions  did;  nevertheless,  a  great 
many  documents  were  mutilated,  others  carried  away  to  Chile, 
and  many  sold  in  Lima  which  have  since  been  added  to  private 
collections ;  even  the  indices  were  lost.  For  several  years  the 
documents  were   thrown   together   almost   utterly   without   care. 


•''The  information  set  forth  in  this  paragraph  was  taken  from  the 
Rcvista  de  archivos  y  hihliotecas  nacionalcs  (now  defunct),  v.  1,  No.  1, 
(1901),  pp.  XIX — LXXXXII  (sic),  supplemented  by  conversation  with 
Senor   Carlos    Romero. 

^The  figures  follow — Bundles  :  T emporalidadcs-J csuitas,  239 ;  In- 
quisicion,  361;  Censos,  57;  Tabacos,  about  446;  Polvora,  naipes,  etc., 
about  64;  Audiencia  dc  Cuzco,  105.  Folio  volumes:  Temporalidadcs,  79; 
Tabacos,   (A7. 


A  Field  for  an  Historical  Survey  49 

but  after  the  war  was  over,  an  attempt  at  the  physical  preser- 
vation of  the  documents  was  made.  In  1890,  valuable  colonial 
materials  were  taken  from  other  depositories,  and  added  to 
the  national  archive.  The  principal  sets  in  these  acquisitions 
were  Cajas  Reales  del  Virreynato,  Aduanas,  Real  Tribunal  de 
Cuentas,  and  Tribunal  del  Consulado.  Nobody  seems  to  know 
how  great  a  quantity  of  materials  still  remains  in  the  archive, 
but  there  are  probably  upwards  of  two  thousand  bundles,  and 
nearly  a  thousand  folio  volumes. 

3.  Biblioteca  Nacional.  This  institution  has  a  collection 
of  340  volumes  of  manuscripts,  of  which  some  three  hundred 
were  the  selection  of  the  eminent  Peruvian  scholar,  Ricardo 
Palma,  from  the  documents  of  the  national  archive.^  Naturally, 
these  documents  are  of  great  value,  and  some  of  them,  are 
being  published,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  Coleccion  de  libros  y 
documentos  referentes  a  la  historia  del  Peru,  edited  by  Sehor 
Romero. 

4.  Santo  Domingo  and  San  Francisco.  The  convents 
of  these  two  orders,  and  those  of  other  orders  or  churches,  in 
less  degree,  have  archives  recording  the  activities  of  their  or- 
ganizations in  Peru,  mostly  in  the  colonial  era.  Santo  Domingo 
has  three  hundred  volumes  of  manuscripts,  and  San  Francisco 
about  half  that  number.  Scholars  would  be  permitted  to  use 
them. 

D.       OTHER  ARCHIVES. 

An  indication  has  been  given  of  only  the  principal  archives 
of  three  South  American  capitals,  and,  in  the  case  of  those  of 
Buenos  Aires  and  Santiago,  of  those  which  are  perhaps  the 
best  equipped  and  most  progressive  in  the  continent.  If  re- 
ports which  the  writer  has  heard  on  every  hand  may  be  be- 
lieved, particularly  the  references  made  at  the  Congress  of 
Bibliography  and  History,  held  at  Buenos  Aires,  in  July,  1916, 
there  are  numerous   repositories   of  unexplored   material,    scat- 

^The  forty  odd  volumes,  other  than  those  selected  by  Palma,  are 
of  a  miscellaneous  nature.  There  is  one  manuscript  volume  of  cetreria, 
dated  1384.  There  is  also  a  manuscript  copy  of  about  1450  of  Lopez 
de  Ayala's  famous  chronicle  of  the  reigns  of  Pedro  the  Cruel  and  the 
kings   immediately   following. 


20  A  Californian  in  South  America 

tered  over  the  southern  republics.  One  must  not  think,  either, 
that  all  of  the  valuable  materials  are  to  be  found  in  archives 
of  the  greater  countries.  For  example,  there  are  no  less  than 
six  thousand  bundles  in  the  national  archive  of  Paraguay,  most 
of  them  bearing  on  the  colonial  period,  according  to  Senor  Diaz 
Perez,  head  of  the  Biblioteca  Nacional  of  Asuncion. 

In  fine,  materials  in  great  quantity  and  probably  of  great 
value  exist  in  South  America.  Publication  of  documents  is 
going  on  at  some  of  the  principal  archives,  but  even  at  the 
present  commendable  rate,  it  would  take  a  great  many  years, 
perhaps  centuries,  before  the  greater  part  of  available  material 
of  value  could  be  published.  Is  it  not  worth  our  while  to  make 
an  organized  effort  to  find  out  what  exists? 


DOCUMENT  XI. 

Circular  Letter  Addressed  to  American  Historians  in  the 
Latin  American  Field. 

23  Hancock  St.,  Winchester,  Mass. 
November  25,   1916. 

"You  may  have  seen  the  communication  in  the  October 
number  of  the  American  Historical  Review,  in  which  Dr.  Wil- 
liam S.  Robertson  and  I  propose  the  founding  of  a  Latin 
American  Historical  Review,  to  deal  principally  with  the  history 
and  institutions  of  Latin  America. 

You  will  soon  receive  the  printed  program  for  this  year's 
meeting  of  the  American  Historical  Association  at  Cincinnati 
in  which  will  be  announced  a  dinner,  Friday  evening,  December 
29,  for  all  who  are  interested  in  the  project  for  the  new  re- 
view. I  can  assure  you  in  advance  that  many  of  our  leading 
Latin  Americanists  are  in  favor  of  the  idea,  and  it  is  at  the 
suggestion  of  some  of  them  that  I  am  writing  this  letter,  ask- 
ing you  to  plan  to  be  present  at  the  dinner. 

If  you  know  of  anybody  also  interested  in  this  matter, 
professors,  students,  or  business  men,  who  are  likely  to  be  in 
Cincinnati  at  the  time,  please  tell  them  that  we  want  as  many 
as   possible  to   attend.     I    cannot  now   state   the   price   of   the 


The  Latin  American  Meeting  at  Cincinnati  51 

dinner  or  the  place,   but  both,  no   doubt,  will   be   satisfactorily 
arranged. 

Please  write  to  me  if  you  expect  to  attend,  and  all  the 
more  if  you  do  not  expect  to;  we  want  your  views  as  to  the 
desirability  of  this  project,  and  similarly  those  of  the  other 
men   to    whom   you    may   mention   it. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Charles  E.  Chapman. 


DOCUMENT  XII. 

Minutes    of    the    Latin    American    Meeting,    Cincinnati, 
December  29,  1916. 

The  Group  Dinner  for  those  interested  in  Latin  American 
history  was  attended  by  about  thirty,  two  of  whom  were  ladies. 
Dr.  Justin  H.  Smith,  of  Boston,  was  requested  by  Dr.  Charles 
E.  Chapman  to  preside,  and  Dr.  James  A.  Robertson,  of  Wash- 
ington, was  appointed  secretary  of  the  meeting.  Without  any 
preliminaries.  Dr.  Chapman  was  called  upon  to  outline  the  pro- 
ject tor  a  Latin  American  Review.  He  did  so  as  follows: 
The  Project  for  a  Reviezv  to  deal  with  Latin  American  History. 

L     The  need  for  such  a  Review : 

A  great  many  American  students  in  the  Latin  American 
field  have  for  a  long  time  wished  that  there  might  be  some 
organ  devoted  to  their  interests.  According  to  them,  not  only 
was  there  no  single  periodical  adequate  to  their  needs  among 
the  many  who  admit  occasional  Latin  American  material,  but 
also  a  combination  of  all  readily  accessible  periodicals  of  this 
nature  would  hardly  suffice  for  their  needs.  In  other  words, 
the  field  of  Latin  American  history  was,  and  still  is,  almost 
wholly  without  organization.  It  would  clearly  be  a  great  ad- 
vantage to  our  students  to  have  an  organ  devoted  principally 
to  Latin  American  history,  both  as  a  medium  for  articles  which 
do  not  find  a  necessary  inclusion  in  periodicals  already  in 
existence,  and  especially  for  bibliographical  and  other  technical 
information  which  is  now  difficult  or  impossible  of  access. 
Furthermore,  many  of  our  students  have  felt  that  the  general 
subject    of    Latin    America    and    the    relations    of    the    United 


52  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

States  with,  and  with  regard  to,  Latin  America  is  important 
enough  to  merit  a  Review,  and  they  are  confident  that  it  is  a 
field  which  is  going  to  advance  out  of  its  present  relatively 
modest  status  into  a  leading  position  in  our  historical  activities. 

II,     How  the  idea  arose : 

The  definite  project  for  such  a  Review,  to  be  open  also 
for  material  with  regard  to  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  those 
parts  of  the  United  States  once  owned  by  Spain  (but  only  so 
far  as  affected  by  Spanish  contact),  first  took  shape  in  my 
mind  at  the  suggestion  of  the  great  Spanish  historian  Rafael 
Altamira,  during  the  special  meeting  of  the  American  Histori- 
cal Association  at  San  Francisco,  in  the  summer  of  191 5.  A 
year  later,  in  July,  1916,  Dr.  William  Spence  Robertson  and 
I  were  delegates  to  the  American  Congress  of  Bibliography 
and  History  at  Buenos  Aires,  and  we  found  that  such  a  Review 
would  fit  in  with  the  projects  discussed  at  that  Congress,  and 
would  receive  the  hearty  co-operation  of  Latin  American  schol- 
ars. We  thereupon  sent  a  communication  to  the  October  num- 
ber of  the  American  Historical  Review,  proposing  that  a  Re- 
view be  founded,  and  suggesting  the  following  editorial  policy : 

(Dr.  Chapman  here  read  the  communication,  with  several 
additions,  as  follows:) 

1.  That  the  said  Review  should  be  devoted  to  the  his- 
tory (political,  economic,  social,  and  diplomatic,  as  well  as 
narrative)  and  institutions  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  Latin 
American  states.  (Addition :  Latin  America  should  form  the 
principal  field.  The  field  should  also  extend  to  those  parts  of 
the   United    States    once   owned   by    Spain). 

2.  That  it  follow  the  general  style  and  arrangement  of 
the  American  Historical  Review,  but  with  more  space  allotted 
to  bibliography. 

3.  That  articles  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese  be  printed  as 
well  as  those  in  English.     (Addition:    Articles  in  French  also). 

4.  That  the  articles  published  be  mainly  those  of  such  a 
character  that  they  cannot  find  ready  acceptance  in  the  regional 
periodicals    which    already    exist.       (Addition:    This    Review 


The  Latin  American  Meeting  at  Cincinnati  53 

would  not  compete  with  any  existing  reviews,  but  would  really 
be  a  help  to  them). 

Upon  my  return  to  this  country  a  month  ago,  this  dinner 
was  arranged  for  the  discussion  of  the  project. 

III.     The  financial  situation: 

On  the  advice  of  Dr.  Jameson  and  Dr.  Turner,  I  made  no 
attempt,  before  this  meeting,  to  see  whether  financial  support 
could  be  obtained,  but  I  am  able  to  present  some  data  to  you 
bearing  upon  that  subject. 

{Dr.  Chapman  here  read  the  pertinent  parts  of  a  letter 
from  the   Waverly  Press  of  Baltimore,  as  follows)  : 

Under  separate  cover  we  are  sending  sample  copy 
of  the  Amercian  Political  Science  Reviezv,  which  em- 
bodies the  general  specifications  we  would  recommend 
for  your  proposed  publication. 

Regarding    cost    of    such    publication,    based    upon 
data  given  in  your  letter: 
500  copies,  128  pages  and  cover,  if  set  in  11  point 

type  (foreign  matter  not  to  exceed  10%)  would 

cost  approximately  $225.00  per  issue. 
500  additional  copies  would  cost  iic  each. 

For  pages  set  in  smaller  type  there  would,  of  course, 
be  some  additional  charge. 

The  cost  of  mailing  an  issue  of  500  at  second  class 
rates  would  be  about  $3.25  to  $3.50. 

Printed  wrappers,  $2.00. 

Wrapping  and  addressing,  $3.25. 

These  are  approximate  figures,  but  very  close  to 
actual. 

The  paper  which  we  use  and  which  is  shown  in 
the  sample  volume  is  one  which  we  have  made  specially 
according  to  a  formula  which  we  have  long  been  using 
and  which  has  been  approved  by  the  Bureau  of  Stan- 
dards and  Arthur  D.  Little  Co.  of  Boston.  It  would 
be  possible  to  reduce  the  cost  slightly  by  the  use  of 
cheaper  paper,  but  not  materially,  and  we  feel  that  this 
would  be  unwise  as  your  journal  will  contain  material 


24  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

which  you  would  desire  preserved,  and  the  chemists 
have  advised  us  that  the  paper  which  we  are  using 
insures  permanency  of  record. 

In  addition  comes  the  matter  of  editorial  expense  and 
cost  of  articles  which  I  do  not  feel  competent  to  estimate, 
although  I  believe  a  fairly  generous  allowance  should  be  made 
for  both.  Over  against  this,  there  would  be  an  income  from 
subscriptions  to  the  Review  and  from  advertising.  At  the  out- 
set this  sum  would  not  be  very  great.  At  $3.00  a  year  there 
might  not  be  enough  subscribers  among  men  in  the  field  and 
libraries  to  produce  more  than  $500  a  year,  although  you  will 
perhaps  be  willing  to  agree  with  me  that  this  is  a  conservative 
estimate.  This  would  leave  a  deficit  of  from  $500  to  $1000  a 
year.  If  the  Review  should  prove  a  success,  however,  the 
annual  deficit  would  in  time  become  much  less  through  an  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  subscribers,  possibly  more  advertising, 
and  a  sale  of  the  earlier  numbers;  but  a  subsidy  will  probably 
be  necessary  for  many  years  in  order  to  make  expenses  meet. 

The  chances  for  a  subsidy  are  perhaps  better  for  a  maga- 
zine in  this  field  than  for  almost  any  other  that  might  be  de- 
sired at  present;  at  any  rate,  that  is  the  opinion  of  several 
men  with  whom  I  have  talked.  Mr.  George  P.  Brett,  president 
of  the  Macmillan  Company,  is  among  those  who  believe  that 
the  problem  of  financing  this  particular  periodical  is  not  a  diffi- 
cult one  at  all.  If  the  idea  is  taken  up  at  this  meeting,  he  offers 
to  furnish  our  organizing  committee  with  a  list  of  all  the  men  in 
New  York  who  might  be  interested  in  the  project.  He  also 
makes  a  further  offer,  which  I  think  you  will  recognize  is  one  of 
very  definite  advantage — the  use  of  the  Macmillan  Company  im- 
print for  the  periodical.  Nothing  could  more  clearly  indicate 
his  approval  of  the  idea. 

IV.     Symposium  of  the  letters: 

I  think  the  most  interesting  thing  I  have  to  tell  you  is  to 
let  you  know  how  men  in  the  American  historical  profession 
view  this  plan.  I  sent  out  y2  letters,  nearly  all  of  which  went 
to  members  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  believed 
to  be  interested  in  Latin  American  history.     If  I  missed  any- 


The  Latin  American  Meeting  at  Cincinnati  55 

body,  the  slight  was  unintentional.  All  but  12  answered — a 
praiseworthy  record,  I  think.  Of  the  60  who  did  answer,  8 
were  non-committal,  6  were  opposed,  and  46  announced  them- 
selves in  favor  of  the  project.  The  question  most  prominent 
with  supporters  of  the  plan  was  the  financial  one,  and  this  was 
also  alluded  to  by  several  of  the  opponents.  I  think  it  may 
be  taken  as  the  opinion  of  the  writers  that  an  adequate  financial 
backing  should  be  found  before  the  magazine  is  launched. 

Another  point  discussed  was  that  of  the  name  of  the 
Review.  Many  objections  were  made  to  the  term  "Ibero- 
American,"  originally  proposed.  Other  names  suggested  were 
"Hispanic-American  Historical  Review,"  "Latin  American  His- 
torical Review,"  "Spanish  American  Historical  Journal,"  and 
"Journal   of   Spanish   American   History." 

Three  of  the  men  who  oppose  the  founding  of  the  Review — 
the  only  ones  to  state  the  ground  of  their  objection — believe  that 
there  are  not  enough  men  and  sufficient  equipment  in  this  coun- 
try to  provide  first-class  articles  for  such  a  Review.  On  the 
other  hand,  letter  upon  letter  expressed  the  opinion  that  on 
that  score  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  the  success  of  the  Re- 
view. It  might  also  be  argued  that  the  very  existence  of  the 
Review  would  result  in  an  advance  in  our  ca'pacity  to  do  good 
work ;  without  the  Review,  it  is.  difficult  to  measure  up  to  even 
our  present  more  or  less  latent  capabilities. 

One  prominent  reason  for  supporting  it  was  because  of 
the  relationships  that  it  would  engender  with  Latin  America. 
Some  viewed  this  matter  from  the  standpoint  of  national  affairs, 
and  others  from  that  of  professional  relations  with  Latin 
American  historians.  Several  writers  urged  that  articles  from 
Latin  Americans  in  their  own   language  be  printed  frequently. 

A  great  many  alluded  to  the  purely  professional  advan- 
tages to  our  own  men  engaged  in  the  Latin  American  his- 
torical field. 

V.  (Continuing,  Dr.  Chapman  read  letters  from  the  fol- 
lowing gentlemen,  to- wit,  Messrs.  Lichtenstein  (Northwestern), 
Klein  (Harvard),  Rowe  (Pennsylvania),  Bingham  (Yale), 
Martin  (Leland  Stanford,  Jr.),  Bolton  (California),  Priestley 
(California),    Shepherd    (Columbia);    from    Willard    Straight, 


56  A  Californian  in  South  America 

Archer  Huntington,  John  Barrett,  Secretary  McAdoo,  and 
President  Wilson.     Of  the  latter  Dr.  Chapman  said)  : 

Finally,  I  wish  to  read  you  a  letter  of  which  we  cannot 
fail  to  take  notice,  coming  from  the  source  it  does.  If  the  Re- 
view is  founded,  I  would  like  to  see  this  letter  printed  on  the 
first  page. 

President  Wilson's  letter  expresses  his  "very  sincere  ap- 
proval of  the  project,"  and  adds,  "It  is  a  most  interesting  one 
and  ought  to  lead  to  very  important  results  both  for  scholarship 
and  for  the  increase  of  cordial  feeling  throughout  the  Americas." 

VI.     Machinery  for   action: 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  propose  a  resolution  and  two 
motions,  all  of  which  I  think  best  to  discuss  together,  although 
they  may  be  voted  separately.     The  resolution  follows : 

Resolved,  by  members  and  guests  of  the  American  His- 
torical Association  gathered  at  the  Group  Dinner  to  discuss 
the  project  to  found  a  Latin  American  Review; 

That  the  general  project  for  such  a  Review  seems  to  them 
a  desirable  one,  provided  adequate  financial  backing  can  be 
procured. 

If  you  will  pass  this  resolution,  I  shall  feel  that  my  efforts 
for  the  founding  of  the  Review  have  not  been  wasted,  whatever 
you  may  decide  upon  v^ith  regard  to  my  motions. 

I  move : 

I.  That  a  committee  of  seven  be  chosen  at  this  meeting, 
to  be  called  the  Committee  on  Organization,  with  power  to 
take  all  steps  which  may  in  their  judgment  seem  best  to  found 
a  Review  coming  within  the  general  objects  proposed  in  the 
project  for  a  Latin  American  Historical  Review,  their  power 
to  include : 

(a)  A  right  and  a  duty  to  seek  an  endowment  to  guaran- 
tee its  permanence. 

(b)  A  right  to  select  a  name  for  the  periodical. 

(c)  A  right  to  define  the  mitial  editorial  policy  of  the 
Review. 

(d)  A  right  and  a  duty  to  provide  for  its  initial  organ- 
ization and  management. 


The  Latin  American  Meeting  at  Cincinnati  57 

(e)  A  right  to  set  the  date  when  publication  shall  begin, 
provided  that  date  be  not  later  than  January,    1918. 

(f)  A  right  to  dissolve  without   founding  the  Review. 

(g)  A  right  and  a  duty  to  do  anything  else  which  may 
seem  desirable  or  necessary. 

2.  That  a  committee  of  three  be  chosen,  to  be  called  the 
Nominating  Committee,  with  a  single  function,  to  be  exercised 
once  only,  viz.,  a  power,  upon  notification  from  the  Committee 
on  Organization,  to  make  nominations  for  the  first  Board  of 
Editors,  who  shall  be  elected  in  such  manner  as  may  be  pre- 
scribed by  the  Committee  on  Organization. 

According  to  my  views,  members  of  this  second  committee 
should  be  men  of  high  standing  in  the  profession  who  are  not 
however  Latin  Americanists.  I  regard  such  a  committee  as 
necessary,  so  as  to  allow  members  of  the  Committee  on  Organ- 
ization to  work  with  an  entirely  free  hand,  free  from  suspicion 
that  they  are  working  in  their  own  interests,  and  yet  free  when 
the  time  comes  to  accept  an  election  to  the  Board  of  Editors. 

Thereupon,  the  resolution  proposed  by  Dr.  Chapman 
was  unanimously  approved.  Following,  Dr.  Chapman  moved 
his  first  motion,  proposing  as  the  Committee  on  Organization 
the  following: 

For  East — ^James  A.  Robertson,  Washington,  chairman; 
William  R.  Shepherd,  Columbia;  Edward  L.  Stevenson,  His- 
panic  Society;   Hiram  Bingham,   Yale;  Julius   Klein,   Harvard. 

For  Middle  West — Isaac  J.  Cox,  Cincinnati,  or  Roland  G. 
Usher,  Washington  University. 

For  West — Herbert  E.  Bolton,  California. 

Dr.  Cox  immediately  withdrew  his  name,  leaving  the  name 
of  Roland  G.  Usher. 

On  being  duly  seconded,  the  motion  (including  names) 
was  amended  to  read  "That  a  Committee  of  Nine,"  and  that 
the  names  of  Charles  E.  Chapman,  California,  and  C.  L. 
Chandler,  of  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  South  American  representa- 
tive for  freight  traffic  of  the  Southern  Railway  Co.,  and  othei-^ 
then  the  original  motion  as  amended,  w^ere  passed.  Dr.  Chap- 
railways,  be  added   to  the   committee.     The   amendments,   and 


58  A  Calif ornian  in  South  America 

man  attempted,  without  success,  to  withdraw,  as  he  and  Dr. 
William  Spence  Robertson  had  agreed  only  to  set  the  ball 
rolling,  and  suggested  that  he  would  be  embarrassed  in  re- 
porting the  result  of  the  meeting  to  his  colleague  in  the  pro- 
posal. 

Mr.  Chapman  formally  moved  his  second  suggestion,  nam- 
ing as  a  Nominating  Committee  Drs.  J.  F.  Jameson,  F.  J. 
Turner,  and  Justin  H.  Smith.  The  motion  was  passed  unani- 
mously. 

Re,  the  first  motion,  on  motion  by  Roland  G.  Usher,  with 
the  requisite  second,  it  was  resolved  that  a  quorum  in  the  Com- 
mittee on  Organization  should  consist  of  three  members. 

Idem,  by  motion  of  Dr.  Chapman,  duly  seconded,  That 
upon  the  resignation  or  death  of  any  member,  the  other  mem- 
bers be  empowered  to  elect  his  successor. 

On  motion  by  C.  L.  Chandler,  duly  seconded,  it  was  unani- 
mously resolved  that  Dr.  Chapman  be  instructed  to  write  to 
Dr.  William  Spence  Robertson,  the  appreciation  of  those 
present  of  his  scholarship  and  work. 

On  motion  by  Dr.  Bonham  of  Louisiana,  duly  seconded, 
it  was  unanimously  resolved  that  a  vote  of  thanks  be  extended 
to  Drs.  Chapman  and  Smith. 

On  motion,  the  meeting  was  adjourned  sine  die. 

Among  those  speaking  on  matters  connected  with  the  pro- 
ject were  Drs.  Jameson,  Burr,  Bonham,  C.  L.  Chandler,  and 
others.      The  meeting  was   deeply   enthusiastic   and  purposeful. 

Those  present,  so  far  as  they  could  be  ascertained,  were : 
Messrs.  E.  C.  Barker,  Austin,  Texas;  E.  J.  Benton,  Western 
Reserve;  M.  L.  Bonham,  Louisiana;  E.  W.  Brandon,  Oxford, 
Ohio  ;  G.  L.  Burr,  Cornell ;  C.  L.  Chandler,  Chattanooga ;  C.  E. 
Chapman,  California  ;  A.  H.  Clark,  Cleveland  ;  L  J.  Cox,  Cincin- 
nati ;  G;  S.  Godard,  Hartford ;  F.  H.  Hodder,  Kansas  ;  J.  A.  Jiames, 
Northwestern ;  J.  F.  Jameson ;  J.  L.  Kingsbury,  Kirksville,  Mo. ; 
J.  G.  McDonald,  Bloomington ;  T.  M.  Marshall,  Idaho;  T.  P. 
Martin,  Cambridge;  V.  H.  Paltsits,  New  York  PuDlic  Library; 
C.  O.  Paullin,  Carnegie  Institution ;  W.  W.  Pierson  Jr.,  North 
Carolina ;   James    A.    Robertson,    Washington,    D.    C. ;    W.     L. 


The  Latin  American  Meeting  at  Cincinnati  59 

Schurz,  Michigan;  F.  J.  Turner,  Harvard;  Roland  G.  Usher, 
Washington  University,  St.  Louis;  Miss  Irene  T.  Myers, 
Lexington,  Ky. ;  and  Mrs.  M.  H.  Stone,  Saginaw,  Mich. 

James  A.  Robertson, 

Secretary. 


LIBRARY 

tJNTVERSTTY  OF  CALT^OT?T^/i 


SPItPY  BINDER 

^ZZ  Syrocwse,  N.  Y. 
■    Stccfclon,  C«lif. 


STACK 


UC  SOUTHLRN  RtGIONAL  LIBIW'W  1^  ACILITY 

AA    000  9?'^  989    9 


